I’m a Mcdonald’s worker – the real reason the McFlurry machine isn’t working and why we can’t serve breakfast after 11am
A McDonald’s worker has shared some secrets about the fast food chain, including why the McFlurry machine is always turned off.
Kenya Humprhies often takes to social media to share an insight into her life as a McDonald’s staff member.
In a recent TikTok video, revealed the answers to the questions she receives most often.
Why is the McFlurry machine always turned off?
Kenya said that she is constantly asked why the ice cream machine in her McDonald’s is always turned off, and she revealed that there is a simple explanation.
“It’s just getting cleaned”, she said.
Kenya said the staff in her restaurant pick one day a week to clean the machine and have to turn it off for the duration of the cleaning.
She added that she saw a TikTok of a woman stating that staff turn the machine off when it gets busy, but said that this is not the case in the store where she works.
“It’s genuinely getting cleaned, or it’s been used that many times that it’s broken”, she said.
Fabulous’ Associate Editor, Rebecca Miller, worked in McDonald’s for five years, she shares her thoughts on Kenya’s revelations below.
Is this true?
“I worked in a 24-hour McDonald’s with a Drive Thru, in South Wales, between the ages of 16 and 21, and it was so much fun, but you got worked hard, and the pay was minimal – £4.35 an hour!
In our store, because it was open every day of the year apart from Christmas Day, our ice cream machine was up and running all the time – unless it was being cleaned in the early hours of the morning, once a week.
When the night team clocked on, the ice cream machine would be turned off, and left for a few hours to defrost. Then it would be pulled apart, and thoroughly cleaned and dried.
If the parts were not dried properly, and liquid ice cream was then added, the churning device inside would freeze up – and this is what would stop the machine from working. It would take another few hours for it to defrost, be re-cleaned, dried and turned back on.
So unless the ice cream machine is really broken – eg. a part inside it had broken, the real reason a customer would be told it ‘wasn’t working’ is because it had frozen up – all because someone didn’t dry the parts well enough…”
Why can’t you buy breakfast after 11?
Kenya said customers often get annoyed at her if they come in at three minutes past 11, and she tells them that breakfast is no longer being served.
However, she said that as soon as it reaches 11, staff have to start cooking the regular menu items.
This means that they have to immediately stop cooking the breakfast items.
“Otherwise we’ll be cooking breakfast at the same time as we’ll be putting beef down”, she said. “It just doesn’t work.”
Kenya did explain that if there is any bacon or eggs left over after breakfast has finished being cooked, she is happy to serve it to customers so as not to waste food.
However, if there is none left, staff will not cooking any more.
But what does Rebecca think of Kenya’s reason?
“She’s partly right. From around 10:30, the kitchens will start getting ready for Main Menu, and that means reducing the amount of breakfast items being cooked, and slowly cleaning and changing the machines and ingredient stations over.
“The grills need to be cleaned thoroughly between Breakfast and Main Menu – both the breakfast sausage patties and beef burgers are cooked on the same grills but never at the same time.
“There’s never an immediate ‘stop cooking breakfast, it’s 11:00 so we need to cook Main Menu’. It’s a transition.
“And in my Drive Thru, we still took orders until just after 11:00 for the final few customers who desperately wanted breakfast.
“Just like we would start putting beef down and dropping chicken and chips into the fryers around 10:50 for those customers that wanted a burger early.”
Why does it take ages to get served at the drive-thru?
Kenya revealed the reason it can take a long time for someone to ask for your order at the drive-thru, is because the servers are usually tasked with another job as well, such as making drinks.
Therefore, if they have lots of drinks orders, they will struggle to juggle both responsibilities at once.
“The customer is priority though, so they should be answering within the first five seconds.”
Rebecca’s thoughts? “It depends on what time of day it is, and how many people are working on each station.
“If it’s quiet, there would only be one person on ‘top window’ (the first window you get to in the Drive Thru where you pay), taking orders for the first lane and payments.
“This person (in my Drive Thru) would also be tasked with being the back washer – responsible for rinsing kitchen equipment, loading and unloading the dishwasher, and replacing the items.
“We also had someone at the second window who had a headset on, that would be taking orders for the second lane in the Drive Thru. At the same time, they would be making the drinks.”
Kenya’s video, which was posted under the username @kenyaxo, has likely left many people impressed, as it has racked up over 429,000 views on the video sharing platform.
TikTok users raced to the video’s comments section to share their thoughts.
One person said: “Please make breakfast an all day thing.”
A second person said: “The flurry machine, always broke in my store and we usually cleaned it on a night shift.”
A third person said: “Breakfast should end earlier! I’m always craving a cheeseburger at 10am!”