5 ms·

This is classic market protectionism. Lock the consumer into a product ecosystem, charge them every time something goes wrong, and make it very hard to fix thin

This is classic market protectionism. Lock the consumer into a product ecosystem, charge them every time something goes wrong, and make it very hard to fix things on your own. What if there was a law that banned exclusive repair contract? For example it says here that Taylor requires that you call out a service technician. What is the company could not make that demand? What if by law you could call any technician you wanted to to come and work on your machine (accepting liability for damage of course). Would that help?

colechristensen 5y ago
Remember here the discussion is about mcdonalds. They absolutely do not need legal protection from a supplier and are freely able to dictate terms. If their ice cream machines don’t work reliably enough it is entirely on them for not making it a priority. What seems like is going on is that unskilled employees are interacting with a machine which isn’t particularly robust which fails on the side of food safety and management/corporate who do not see the situation as particularly important.
- underseacables 5y ago
  So what’s in it for McDonalds? I didn’t think of your point because I wedded Taylor to McDonalds. If I were the CEO of McDonalds I would be rather angry at rolling McFlurry Blackouts. Curious why they haven’t brought the process in house, and simplified it.
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    The reasonable inference is that corporate is getting kickbacks from Taylor for all the service calls.
  - colechristensen 5y ago
    They look at how much it is actually happening and the impact to revenue, image, etc. and just don't care to fix the problem, or have identified that fixing the problem isn't worth the cost to fix the problem and decided how things are is fine by them. Machines already have downtime for maintenance + extra downtime for brokenness, reducing the brokenness rate perhaps just doesn't make sense for them or they have other priorities. Nothing is free and everything goes down from time to time. Perhaps the downtime coincides with very low sales so they just don't care.
    - colechristensen 5y ago
      Also, maybe mcflurry machines being broken leads to people talking about mcflurries a lot more and ends up selling more units. I kind of want one right now. Broken machines as marketing tools. Nightclubs sit empty and make huge lines of people wait outside, because scarcity is marketing. Maybe broken ice cream machines mean people buy something and come back later to get their ice cream and buy more cheeseburgers.
    - somerandomqaguy 5y ago
      There's a paywalled WSJ article that mentions it but there's websites floating around that hint towards Carpigiani being an approved vendor now in addition to Taylor. https://www.wsj.com/articles/mcdonalds-customers-scream-and-get-new-ice-cream-machines-1488476862 https://www.wsj.com/articles/mcdonalds-customers-scream-and-... https://www.carpigiani.com/en/news/mcdonaldsaward2017 https://www.carpigiani.com/en/news/mcdonaldsaward2017 https://coolersinc.com/2020/02/21/mcdonalds-shake-machines/ https://coolersinc.com/2020/02/21/mcdonalds-shake-machines/ Somewhat ironically though, Carpigiani just hired a Taylor executive to handle their McDonalds account: https://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com/carpigiani-scoops-taylor-executive-to-run-mcdonalds-global-account/ https://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com/carpigiani-scoop... For new franchisees I assume that they have more flexibility, but existing ones would have to weigh the cost of upgrade vs the cost of having the Taylor machines down all the time.
- b3morales 5y ago
  > from a supplier and are freely able to dictate terms Taylor does not supply McDonald's the giant corporation: it supplies the individual franchisees, who are closer in negotiating power to any small restaurant (except that they also have terms dictated to them by McDonald's itself).

colechristensen 5y ago

Remember here the discussion is about mcdonalds. They absolutely do not need legal protection from a supplier and are freely able to dictate terms. If their ice cream machines don’t work reliably enough it is entirely on them for not making it a priority. What seems like is going on is that unskilled employees are interacting with a machine which isn’t particularly robust which fails on the side of food safety and management/corporate who do not see the situation as particularly important.

underseacables 5y ago
So what’s in it for McDonalds? I didn’t think of your point because I wedded Taylor to McDonalds. If I were the CEO of McDonalds I would be rather angry at rolling McFlurry Blackouts. Curious why they haven’t brought the process in house, and simplified it.
- ncmncm 5y ago
  The reasonable inference is that corporate is getting kickbacks from Taylor for all the service calls.
- colechristensen 5y ago
  They look at how much it is actually happening and the impact to revenue, image, etc. and just don't care to fix the problem, or have identified that fixing the problem isn't worth the cost to fix the problem and decided how things are is fine by them. Machines already have downtime for maintenance + extra downtime for brokenness, reducing the brokenness rate perhaps just doesn't make sense for them or they have other priorities. Nothing is free and everything goes down from time to time. Perhaps the downtime coincides with very low sales so they just don't care.
  - colechristensen 5y ago
    Also, maybe mcflurry machines being broken leads to people talking about mcflurries a lot more and ends up selling more units. I kind of want one right now. Broken machines as marketing tools. Nightclubs sit empty and make huge lines of people wait outside, because scarcity is marketing. Maybe broken ice cream machines mean people buy something and come back later to get their ice cream and buy more cheeseburgers.
  - somerandomqaguy 5y ago
    There's a paywalled WSJ article that mentions it but there's websites floating around that hint towards Carpigiani being an approved vendor now in addition to Taylor. https://www.wsj.com/articles/mcdonalds-customers-scream-and-get-new-ice-cream-machines-1488476862 https://www.wsj.com/articles/mcdonalds-customers-scream-and-... https://www.carpigiani.com/en/news/mcdonaldsaward2017 https://www.carpigiani.com/en/news/mcdonaldsaward2017 https://coolersinc.com/2020/02/21/mcdonalds-shake-machines/ https://coolersinc.com/2020/02/21/mcdonalds-shake-machines/ Somewhat ironically though, Carpigiani just hired a Taylor executive to handle their McDonalds account: https://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com/carpigiani-scoops-taylor-executive-to-run-mcdonalds-global-account/ https://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com/carpigiani-scoop... For new franchisees I assume that they have more flexibility, but existing ones would have to weigh the cost of upgrade vs the cost of having the Taylor machines down all the time.
b3morales 5y ago
> from a supplier and are freely able to dictate terms Taylor does not supply McDonald's the giant corporation: it supplies the individual franchisees, who are closer in negotiating power to any small restaurant (except that they also have terms dictated to them by McDonald's itself).