Developer Created A Website To Track All McDonald's In The U.S. For Broken Ice Cream Machines

24/10/2020

Fast food restaurants are those that sell mass-produced food designed for commercial resale.

Prioritizing speed of service over everything else, fast food restaurants want to appeal anyone who are both hungry and have no time to wait for any cooking involving with any culinary science.

They make this happen by having pre-cooked meals that are kept ready all the time.

It's by having these meals ready to serve, even before customers arrive, that makes fast food restaurants capable of serving their customers in mere seconds.

This is why fast food restaurants are extremely popular among commuters, travelers and wage workers.

One of the players in this multi-billion dollar industry, is McDonald's.

Famed for its burgers and french fries, the fast food chain is also famed for its chicken products, breakfast items, soft drinks, and of course, the desserts.

But just like any other fast food restaurants, where customers expect speedy service for whatever meal they crave at the moment, one of the worst experience would be knowing that their favorite meal isn't readily available.

And Rashiq Zahid, a software engineer, created a website to curb all that too familiar disappointment that comes after finding out that the McDonald's customers are ordering from has a broken ice cream machine.

That web app he calls 'McBroken', essentially tracks all McDonald's in the United States, to which one of them has a working ice cream machine, and which one doesn't.

Zahid created the web app by reverse-engineering the fast-food giant’s ordering API.

Successfully doing that, McBroken uses the API to check the availability of a McSundae at each of the McDonald's location by adding the ice cream desert to an online order, once every 30 minutes.

The 24-year-old software engineer said that his intention in creating the web app, is because he was fed up with coming to McDonald's to then realized that he couldn't order McSundae because of broken ice cream machines.

After the site was put online, Zahid started examining McDonald's locations in various places in Germany, where he lives, by physically visiting those locations. Upon arriving, he will take notes to see whether or not McBroken's data was correct. After it passed the tests, he debuted the website to where the fast food chain is from, the U.S..

Zahid said the tool was created as a joke, but he was surprised to know that many people find it useful.

I just made it for fun,” said Zahid. “But people were like ‘Wow, this is the best thing I’ve seen this entire week.’”

Even David Tovar, McDonald’s VP of U.S. Communications, showed his support the the young software developer and ice cream lover, saying that:

“Only a true @McDonalds fan would go to these lengths to help customers get our delicious ice cream! So, thanks! We know we have some opportunities to consistently satisfy even more customers with sweet treats and we will.”