Most of the time, I would wake myself up, thinking of things that bother me, questions that either, I still don't have any answers to yet, or I am not satisfied the least. A question such as why do most of the time, we drink coffee and just stare into blank space? Or why do milk teeth had to fall off, why don't we end up with permanent teeth in the first place? Or questions like why in the world was Donald Trump elected as president? You know these types of questions. And yet there is this question that not only I could relate to:
"WHY ARE THE MCDONALD'S ICE CREAM MACHINES ALWAYS BROKEN???"
We all are aware of the fact that McDonald's will always have ice cream machines on their counters and most of the time, they will be broken. Yet, there were times we would watch as the ice cream machine, turns into a pile of dust while we were looking at it.
Let me share a personal experience I had with my friends.
There was this time in which, my friends and I were walking to our school bus stop and we stopped by a fast-food restaurant to order some food. And so I walked ahead and ordered my food, expecting my friends whom I got along with very well that night to come next to me while I was waiting for them. But then I heard something going on inside the fast-food restaurant; so I walked in there.
And so there I see, that two students were arguing and fighting with each other. The girl kept on saying she wanted free ice cream while the boy kept on defending that he wants to stay at the McDonald's because he wanted his food first.
I barely understood what was going on so I asked the girl who was walking ahead of me which she said, "We ordered here for our lunch and when it comes out, the ice cream machines are always broken."
"Oh really?" I asked her. "I will wait outside until my friends come out," I said then turned around to walk away.
But then I heard her say to the boy, "I will wait outside too. Then I will grab you if you can't pay for my ice cream. I know you will." (I don't know where she got that idea from)
"Don't worry, I'll pay," the boy replied and walked out.
Meanwhile, when my friends came out of the fast-food restaurant, they were surprised to hear what happened inside. My friends said that we lost our chance of getting free ice cream because of what happened there.
Later on that night, my friends kept on talking about what happened at McDonald's. "When I walk into a fast-food restaurant, I always expect to see an ice cream machine," they said. However, they were disappointed because of what happened so they went back home and watched TV instead (we were all high).
"But today was different," one of my friends who were there with us that night said as she was thinking about what happened earlier that day. "Usually when you would walk into a fast-food restaurant and there's no ice cream machine, you would expect it to be broken but today was different."
"How was it different?" asked another friend who heard the conversation.
"Because... the ice cream machine was not broken," she replied.
"Wow, that's amazing!" "I wish I was there to see that." "I would've waited for my food longer if it means I could see the ice cream machine working." "I wish I got to go on a trip today. It would be awesome if an ice cream machine is working."
"Hahahaha, wait," my friends said as they started laughing in surprise. "Did you just say the ice cream machine was not broken?"
"Yeah... it was working." "It's just that... it wasn't being used," she panted as her friends kept on laughing at what she said.
And then they said this, "Don't worry, one day we'll walk into a fast-food restaurant and see an ice cream machine being used."
"Hopefully that day will come soon," I replied.
Boom. Now I will type this: "Ice cream machine is not broken."
I know that this is very unbelievable because how could an ice cream machine be working when it's not being used? I was there too, I remember what happened that night. I was there with my friends, we all remember that day.
Very very weird, I must say.
FYI: This case is on a whole different level of brokenness that there is a website made to figure out which locations have a broken ice cream machine (https://mcbroken.com/), created and reverse engineered by @rashiq of Twitter. He certainly figured out a solution, to avoid, sadness, frustration, and regrets of going to a location and buying from a broken McDonald's ice cream machine. You, sir, deserve an ice-cold salute!
Jonny Harris has a great video about why the machines are broken https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4.
The company that makes the machine has to come to reset them, according to the video. McDonald's franchisees must use the machines that won't allow users to reset them. Other fast food places use different machines (from the same company) that don't require the expensive service visits.