[billjings]

> What people are forgetting here is McDonald's has an interest in these machines working as well as possible (revenue + reputation), and the franchisee also has an interest in these machines working as well as possible (revenue).

The franchisee, however, has a countervailing desire to reduce their own costs which McDonald's is fairly insensitive to. McDonald's needs the ice cream to be available, sure, but are they above accepting kickbacks from Taylor the ice cream machine company to keep Taylor's cash flow going?

We are living in an obscenely corrupt and top heavy business environment where much money is to made by insider dealing in large companies with entrenched market positions. There really should be no better evidence of that than the fact than the evidence presented here: America's largest, most famous fast food chain, incapable of reliably serving ice cream to its customers because it's subject to vendor lock-in.