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Guns are also illegal there... It is almost like gangs do not respect regulations...


Buying a gun is a very rare transaction happening 100% in the physical world and leaving no traces per se. Receiving/spending money here is digital in 99% of cases and is recorded forever.


I don't think they are illegal, but barrier to get a permit is relatively high.


I think this article is missing the point. State sponsored cinemas should have a high standard. Playing something with shady copyright, would stain their reputation. Americans would not also play cheap porn in Super Imax theater...

Nobody in Russia cares if some local private/municipal theater plays DVD rip of Barbie...


Ice cream machines are not printers with cartridges. If you allow unqualified labor do "refills", there will be food contamination and people will die!

But we let worse things slide, so who cares. Enjoy your ice cream! :)


What exactly do you think is the difference between McDonalds employees and the people working your local ice cream parlor? Did those people graduate from ice cream academy in order to qualify for the job?


It is not the same setup.

A local ice cream parlor isn't making ice cream on the fly.

They are scooping it from premade buckets stored in special freezer cases during business hours and stored in walking freezers at close.


Soft serve machines that take liquid mix are in nearly every single establishment that offers some form of Ice cream. This isn't special technology.

As other's have pointed out, McDonalds, or their franchises, wanted to eliminate the couple hours of labor usually required to clean those machines daily, and so developed their own mix, and Taylor made special machines that would "self clean" to support it. For safety reasons (probably), those machines lock themselves down if anything goes off the sanitized happy path, and only super expensive Taylor techs have the requisite knowledge to get them back on track.

McDonald's is alone in this struggle because they wanted to save $20 a day in wages. It's $350 per 15 minutes to fix the machines, so assuming it's just one button to fix them (it's not) it only has to break down less than once every 18ish days to pay off, but it doesn't scale well if the machines are less reliable than that.


> Did those people graduate from ice cream academy in order to qualify for the job

Some of them actually did graduate from "ice cream academy". Local Ice Cream parlor has reputation to maintain. Sometimes it is even directly operated by ice cream company.

McDonalds just runs automated machine somewhere in corner. They have no reputation to maintain, it is just borrowed franchise.


> If you allow unqualified labor do "refills", there will be food contamination and people will die!

If they're still the same machines from decades past when I worked at McDonald's then refilling the machine is just dumping a bag of mix in the container on the top. It doesn't take much qualifications. Slightly easier than refilling a printer.


It's not quite the same machine... the current machines have a nightly cycle that will raise the temperature to (re)pasturize the equipment and mix. This cycle often fails, for various reasons which then reads an error code requiring (an expensive) technician to fix.

The machines from decades past had a manual cleaning cycle that included draining the system, partial disassembly and disinfection of parts. Most assistant store managers (and some shift managers) are/were trained for this job. Of course most other restaurants are using these older designs without issue. Also, McDs themselves used these older machines without issue at the time.

The board members for McDs are also board members for the equipment oem, and the licensed repair orgs. It's about extracting money from franchisees more than it is about food safety. It could mean a reduction in maintenance and labor, but there's no reason that higher level store managers/assistants can't also be trained in basic maintenance on these newer machines.


Fear. Uncertainty. Doubt.

So the only people smart enough to repair them safely are the manufacturers?

So only take your car to the dealership for a service?


I would not let typical McDonald worker anywhere near my car.

Meat is cooked just before the use, it does not get poisonous very easily. Ice cream is very different. How would you ensure that managers throw away "good enough" batches of ice cream every evening?


The franchisee should be able to use any qualified repair person who can use any suitable parts. That is what right to repair is about.

Not the right to break health and safety laws.


The thing is, there are few industries that are as cut-throat as fast food. Wherever franchisees see an opportunity to save even a couple dozen bucks, they will take it, laws don't matter.

And enforcement is pretty lacking in itself. Most people won't report it to the authorities that they got the runs from some ice cream, the authorities will only hear about it when dozens of people arrive at the hospital with the same symptoms, and even then most public health departments have already been understaffed prior to COVID to follow up on the hospital reports and conduct inspections.

What McD/Taylor are doing here is, as fucked up as it is, the only meaningful way they can make sure they're not labeled a public health risk.


And yet you don't see Wendy's frosties killing people all the time? Are their machines magic or is following a "take everything apart, soak it in this sanitizing liquid, rinse it, put it back together" not actually hard for a kid who has been trained and given ample time to do the task? Also I'm not convinced most fast food employees are kids anymore. Plenty employees are well into adulthood.


"Qualified" person is not somebody who had evening school, and can hold screwdriver.

There is a chain of custody, paper trail, spare parts certification, logging... For example if there is a heat ex-changer that sometimes does not work, it may cause a lawsuit. McDonald (and insurance companies) wants to be able to sue ice cream machine manufacturer.

I also want to be able to replace any "suitable" parts in my car, but sadly government does not allow that! Remember, when everyone lost their shit with Volkswagen "cheating" in their software?


Managers themselves used to receive training for basic maint on the older machines before the automated sanitization cycle.


ice cream machine: 70 63 20 6C 6F 61 64 20 6C 65 74 74 65 72

Kytch board: "reservoir is overfull, remove product and start again"

Ah yes, good thing we ensured those fucking rubes did not touch the ice cream! Better schedule a $2000 service call to solve this impossible error. Excuse me while I park my ferrari next to my grand piano.


I think it’s more franchise owners sign an agreement.

The device should be legal if you or I buy this machine. However installing it at McDonalds by a non “certified tech” might be in violation of the franchise contract


This has to be satire


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