You know how it goes: you walk into a McDonald’s, craving that creamy McFlurry, only to be greeted by the dreaded “machine is broken” sign. It’s almost a rite of passage at this point! But hold onto your spoons, because we might be on the verge of a McFlurry revolution!
So, what’s been the deal with these machines? Well, it turns out that about 10-15% of them are out of order at any given time across the country, and it’s been such a widespread issue that a website called McBroken.com keeps tabs on it. We’ve all had a good laugh (and some frustration) over it, but the reason behind this relentless breakdown saga is actually pretty serious.
For years, McDonald’s has been stuck in a bit of a pickle. The machines are made by a company called Taylor, which held exclusive rights to service them. This meant that McDonald’s had to wait for official Taylor repair technicians to come out and fix things—leading to long downtimes and even longer lines of disappointed customers.
But here’s where it gets exciting: the U.S. Copyright Office just made a game-changing decision! They’ve granted a “right to repair” exemption that allows companies like McDonald’s to handle the repairs themselves, bypassing those pesky digital locks that made fixing the machines such a hassle. This new rule went into effect just yesterday!
Thanks to the efforts of groups like Public Knowledge and iFixIt.com, we might soon be able to enjoy our McFlurries without the dreaded “sorry, we’re out of order” letdown. After iFixIt took apart one of these machines and showed how surprisingly easy it is to fix, it looks like we can finally say goodbye to our jokes about broken McFlurry machines.
So, the next time you’re at McDonald’s, keep your fingers crossed. You might just get your McFlurry fix after all! Who knows? Soon, we might be joking about something else entirely.
