Are McDonalds' Employees Deliberately Sabotaging the Frappe?

I should state upfront that I have absolutely no evidence to back the claim made in the title of this post, but I do think something fishy is going on.

Allow me to explain...

I have become somewhat addicted to the McDonalds Caramel Frappe. The addiction began after Starbucks changed its own Frappucino formula - making its product nearly undrinkable and certainly unreliable from store to store. Rather than put up with the change, I gave the McD Frappe a try.

The Frappe was a relatively new product at the time, and to my great amazement it was actually quite delicious. A bit thicker and smoother than the Starbucks version of an iced coffee drink - not to mention less coffee-ey and sweeter - I found it to be a good compliment to my favorite savory fast food breakfast item, the Carl's Jr. Low Carb Breakfast Bowl. In fact, it is infinitely better in my opinion than the current Starbucks Frappucino drinks, and perhaps even better than the former Starbucks formula - though a direct comparison is regrettably impossible.

And so, I became addicted. So addicted that I began purchasing a McD Frappe nearly every morning. Or at least, every morning that McD would allow me to.

Finally, we get to the subject of my title.

I have been shocked at the consistent lack of availability of the Frappe. Approximately 10% of my Frappe purchase attempts are denied for one of two reasons: the Frappe machine is being cleaned or it is broken. This despite the fact customers are being implored to try a "New Frappe" by the McD sign out front.

Clearly McD Inc. wants people to buy Frappes. I've got to believe Frappes, consisting mostly of ice, produce big profit margins. And I assume McD Inc., being the largest player in the food service industry, understands the importance of creating and serving addictions and therefore understands that in order for the process to work the addictive substance must be kept in stock at all times. So what is the problem? How could McD allow this problem to go on for so long?

My guess, the machines aren't the issue, the employees are.

If you've seen a McD employee make a Frappe you know that this is not a typical item on the McD menu. McD Inc. has clearly done its best to develop a machine that takes most of the work out of the Frappe making process, but the employees still must pour the Frappe by hand - something they aren't accustomed to with other drinks, not to mention the Frappe is rather thick and therefore requires some amount of shaking and banging to get the contents into the cup. Because of the thickness of the drink, the pours often lead to spillage on the external area of the cup, requiring wiping by the employees. And finally, there is cleanup. Sure, all the employee has to do is place the blender upside down on a cleaning washer, but still, it's more than they are generally expected to do with any other drink served there.

So, what I think is happening is that McD employees and their generally lazy managers have decided they don't like serving Frappes and that some days it's easier to claim the machine isn't working and deal with the customer frustration rather than make the Frappes. Alternatively, they might actually be purposely failing to maintain the machines properly, thus causing failure more frequently than would otherwise be the case.

Of course, this is all conjecture. Could be the machines are simply poorly designed and prone to failure and that they need to be cleaned VERY frequently, usually during breakfast time.

Whatever the case, McD Inc. needs to address this issue quickly. Addictions can be a very profitable thing, but this morning when the Frappe machine was broken - once again - I returned to Starbucks ... and you know what, their Caramel Frappucino wasn't half bad.

And I can't remember Starbucks ever telling me I couldn't have one.