Adrianne: This is Underunderstood.

John: When was the last time you guys each had a McFlurry? 

Regina: I could not tell you. 

Adrianne: So long ago. But I do, I do want one right now. 

John: I mean,  I’m always in a state of wanting one. 

Billy: Well, you’re like a milkshake enthusiast right? 

John: I mean “milkshake enthusiast…” like let’s not, you don’t need to label me.

Billy: No, I mean like Caitlin, my wife is the same way. Like, so she’ll get a McFlurry from time to time. It’s like in the milkshake family and it’s very easy to get. 

John: Sure. Yeah. 

Adrianne: I’m definitely going to ask Sam to bring me a McFlurry on his way home. 

John: Well, okay, great. That would be very helpful to me.

Adrianne: Would it really? Okay. 

John: So I guess if anyone listening has never heard of a McFlurry before, it is a product. An ice cream dessert from McDonald’s. It’s basically vanilla soft serve with like some kind of candy or cookie or some other things, some topping swirled into it, sort of. 

Billy: It’s a rip off of the Dairy Queen Blizzard, right?

Adrianne: Blizzard. Exactly.

John: Yes. Yes. So the McFlurry debuted in Canada around 1996 and it became a part of the nationwide McDonald’s menu in the U.S. in 1998 and it was widely considered an answer to the Dairy Queen Blizzard. Now, can you all picture of the spoon in a McFlurry?

Billy: Yes. So, it’s like a spoon…

Regina: Okay. We got that.

Billy: But it’s, it’s hollow on the handle and it’s sort of tapered and it comes up to a big opening at the top and sort of like a square. It’s like a big square straw. 

John: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a straw with square edges. Basically. It’s this big, like weird, goofy spoon that’s hollow, and then you left at one part of it that  at the back part of it, it’s got a little clip, this little like tab of plastic sticks out the top of it..

Billy: Yes. 

John: And it seems like a lot of people don’t know what the spoon is for. 

Billy: My original assumption when I first encountered one was like, Oh, they’ve innovated by creating a combination of a spoon and a straw, but it doesn’t work that way. 

John: Yeah. So I’m going to show you this YouTube video. Everyone ready to watch this?

Billy: Ohhhhh.

Regina: Woah, what?! 

Billy: Oh wait, why? 

Regina: So it’s like for internal purposes?

Billy: Okay, just to describe what’s going on…

Regina: Gross.

Billy: They put the soft serve into the cup. Then they put the candy on top. Then they go to the McFlurry machine and the spoon straw contraption clips onto the McFlurry device, and that’s used to mix it. 

John: Yeah. So these things, you clip the spoon into this machine and the machine has a motor and it spins the spoon really fast. And the spoon is what does the mixing. 

Billy: Why?!

John: From what I’ve read, it does this for six seconds, and you’re supposed to move the cup up and down a little bit to make sure it really gets mixed in there. 

Billy: I don’t understand why it was designed this way. 

John: Well, okay. Yeah, that is one of the questions that we’re going to be exploring a little bit. Um, wait, who is the most, who is the person who most recently had a McFlurry? 

Billy: I guess it would be me. I, I can’t, I probably had a bite of a McFlurry… like Caitlin gets them a lot. I probably had a bite of one. 

John: Okay. Uh, all right. Have you seen her like get the McFlurry anytime recently? Is she around? Actually? 

Billy: Um, yeah, hold on, let me see. I think, yeah, she went upstairs. You want me to  to get her?

Adrianne: Billy goes into the next room and Caitlin’s eating a McFlurry. 

Billy: Lemme get her, I’ll be right back.

Adrianne: I texted Sam to ask him to bring me one. It might arrive while we’re still taping. 

John: Can you get him to take a picture of the moment that they hand him the McFlurry?

Adrianne: Okay. Requested. 

Billy: Okay. Sorry, I’m back. I’m gonna give her the headphones. One second.

John: Hey Caitlin. 

Caitlin: Hey!

John: Okay, so Caitlin, Billy let us know that you’re probably of the two of you… Of anybody here actually, that you’ve probably had a McFlurry the most recent of any of us. 

Caitlin: For sure. Probably. 

John: Okay. When you get the McFlurry, are the toppings… What’s the state of the toppings when they give you a McFlurry these days? 

Caitlin: They’re on top. Is that what you mean?

John: Yes! Okay. 

Regina: So they’re not like blended in? 

Caitlin: No.

John: What do you, have you ever gotten one that was blended in? 

Caitlin: Not that I remember. Not, not anytime recently. I mean, maybe like years and years and years ago, when they first came out. Most recently, it’s just all the M&Ms are just poured on top and I have to mix it myself. 

John: Exactly. Yes. 

It’s terrible. 

Caitlin: It’s really annoying cause then it’s just vanilla ice cream at the bottom and it’s just boring, you know? 

John: It’s been years of this, and I feel like at this point it’s been going on for so long that everybody who gets a McFlurry thinks that’s what a McFlurry actually is, that it’s soft serve with a bunch of M and M’s dumped on top.

Caitlin: On top. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

John: This is exactly my experience with McFlurries that when they first came out, it was the 90s and I remember really distinctly getting one at the mall. And they had the machine and it was the special spoon, and they made like kind of a big deal out of this. The fact that the spoon is doing the mixing. 

Caitlin: Yeah. They don’t mix it at all anymore and they still use the same spoons, but it’s just junk. 

Regina: Wow.

John: Okay. Thank you for validating this.  

Caitlin: You got it. No, you’re on it. You got it. 

Billy: Okay. I’m back. 

John: Alright. So Caitlin’s experience is exactly my experience. So I stopped into my McDonald’s, uh, the one in my neighborhood. A couple of nights ago. Sure enough, the McFlurry machine is sitting there behind the counter. It’s unplugged. Uh, the switch is turned off and the cable, the power cable is like wrapped around it. Like it’s been sitting there for a long time, unplugged. 

Billy: Oh my god.

Adrianne: Huh. 

John: They’re not even trying to mix the McFlurries at this particular McDonald’s. I’m curious to see if this is regional also. Like is this just like a Tristate area thing that like everyone collectively stopped mixing the McFlurries up here? So here’s what I want to find out. First, why is nobody talking about the unmixed McFlurry problem. Second, why does this problem even exist? And third, why isn’t McDonald’s doing anything to fix it? 

Adrianne: Ooooh. My McFlurry just got here. 

Regina: Is it mixed? What does it look like? Show us the picture. 

Adrianne: it looks like, I mean, it looks like uhh, it actually looks like a cup full of dirt. 

John: Okay. 

Billy: that’s probably because the top is completely covered in Oreos. 

Regina: Are there any Oreos anywhere but the top?

Adrianne: Well, it’s kinda hard to tell because I can’t see through.  

Regina: You could slice the cup in half. 

John: Regina. 

Billy: You need to freeze it and cut it with a knife. 

Regina: That’s what I’m saying! 

Adrianne: Alright, well, it’s too late. 

Coming up. John hits us with a flurry of information. 

John: Alright folks, you ready for some McFlurry knowledge?

Regina: Ready.

Adrianne: Hit me.

John: All right, so I think I’ve got some answers, some theories, and a couple of remaining questions, but my first move to figure out the real truth behind these unmixed McFlurries was to see if anyone else was even talking about this problem online. And yes, if you search for McFlurry machine or anything beginning with like McDonald’s McFlurry you do get lots of search results about like why the McFlurry machine is down, because this is a thing that a lot of people talk about. 

Billy: I just typed in “why is McFlurry” and it’s, the options are “so good,” “spoon hollow,” “spoon square,” “machine always down.” 

John: Yup. 

Billy: “…called McFlurry.” Why is McFlurry called McFlurry? 

Billy: “…so expensive.” Interesting. “…spoon,” “spoons weird,” “spoons shaped weird,” “straws hollow.” 

Adrianne: Mhm.

John: But anyway, there’s this 2017 article from the Wall Street Journal. It’s titled, “Why is the McFlurry machine down again?” Seems pretty promising, but that piece, which was reported by the writer Julie Jargon, is about the soft serve machines at McDonald’s being down. 

Adrianne: Which separate from the McFlurry machines. 

John: Yes. These are the machines that actually make the soft serve that go into the McFlurries, this wall street journal article. Uh. It talks about how this is a really, really common problem at McDonald’s. There’s even an iOS app called ice check. The crowd sources data to let you know if you’re chosen. McDonald’s currently has ice cream available. You can still download this app. Yeah. So the soft serve machines are definitely part of the McFlurry problem. Since obviously without soft serve, there’s no McFlurry. So according to the Wall Street journal, they say, ”Getting the machines ready for the cleaning cycle is an 11 step process.” But again, those are the soft serve machines, not the McFlurry machines. 

Billy: Right. That happened to me. By the way. 

John: It happens all the time. Yeah. But in a followup story, in 2017 actually, a McDonald’s did tell the Wall Street Journal that they have begun rolling out a new soft serve machine design that doesn’t require this laborious or time consuming maintenance. 

Billy: So any other soft serve machine at any other establishment. 

John: So they’re aware of the problem and taking steps to fix it. But that’s all pretty well covered. Our issue though is, even when the soft serve machine is working, the McFlurries aren’t mixed in the McFlurry machine. Right? So I dug around a little more on r/McDonalds. And there’s a thread there called “Are the McFlurry supposed to be mixed?” United States. r/McDonald’s is frequented by lots and lots of McDonald’s employees. So this is a good place to ask that question in the post goes, ”love McDonald’s, this sub and everyone who works hard there, but I’ve not had a McFlurry mixed up in years. No matter what location I go to. Are they still blended or mixed or is the topping just supposed to be added on top? Leaving the mixing to me.” And someone in the, in the comments answered, there is a McFlurry makes machine. It is violent, LOL. The spoon knocks out the topping, bores a hole through the bottom of the cup and sprays you with cream with no mirror nearby to clean it up. So many of them don’t bother. Good managers make them brave it. 

Billy: That doesn’t seem like a good manager to me. 

Adrianne: Yeah. I think the good manager is the one who unplugged it.

Billy: Yeah. 

Adrianne: And was like, it’s not going to be mixed anyway. 

John: There’s a lot more discussion down here in the comments, they’re kind of like this mixture of employees who always mix their McFlurries, employees who sometimes mix if it’s not busy, and some who just never mix them at all.

None of them want it to be recorded for this podcast, but they did give me some really good information. So one user told me, “The spoon rotates extremely fast and the ice cream provides a lot of friction. So the end result is often the mix-ins spill and ice cream can get everywhere.” 

Adrianne: How fast is extremely fast?

John: No one gave me like RPM. Another one of these Redditors wrote to me, quote, maybe the worker is tired or has made a million flurries and is sick of making them and just half asses it and ends up only moving the cup up and down and not side to side. So it wouldn’t surprise me if the lack of quality is simply the tendency of McDonald’s as a corporation to understaff and overwork their employees.

These people did paint a picture to me that it’s a pretty rough time working for a McDonald’s. 

Adrianne: I’m actually reading a book about this.

John: Oh yeah?

Adrianne: I’m reading a book called On The Clock by this reporter who gets laid off from her newspaper, and she decides to write a book about work in America. So she gets a job at an Amazon warehouse and then a call center, and then McDonald’s and McDonald’s is the last section of the book, and that’s the section I’m in right now.

John: It seems like there’s kind of a lot of pressure to work quickly at a McDonald’s. 

Adrianne: Yeah, definitely. And it also seems like, they use predictive software to decide how many people to put on a shift. And this writer’s theory is that they always understaff it a little bit so that every worker is working at their absolute maximum capacity because that ensures the least amount of waste for McDonald’s.

John: Yeah, it seems really stressful. Um, one other now former McDonald’s employee from Europe, described their reasons why they thought that maybe the McFlurries weren’t mixed as much as they used to be. They said quote, it’s one of those things where you can cut a corner going to save time, which is understandable if you consider that everything is counted in seconds.

You have timers next to each order and workers are expected to be fast because after all, it’s a fast food restaurant. So people will cut corners where they can, especially if they can save eight seconds of mixing time/flurry. So I asked a little bit more about this timer business, and like you said, Adrianne… it’s really intense. They told me that now each station has a target time they have to hit. The most important ones are initiator times in the kitchen and the T.E.T, which stands for total experience time. Our workers that put the order together aim for a time under 150 seconds. There’s going to be orders that take longer than that, but upper management cares about the average.

So I, it’s, I mean, hearing all of this, it’s kind of not surprising that the employees themselves aren’t really motivated to do this kind of laborious process. 

Regina: Right. 

Adrianne: What if our podcast comes out and McDonald’s is like, that’s it. Everyone must mix the McFlurries.

Regina: Oh no. We just make everyone’s life miserable I don’t want to do that!

Adrianne: I would feel bad about that. Yeah. I can mix my own McFlurry. It’s okay. 

John: But anyway, I think we do have an answer to the question of why this is a problem in the first place. It does seem like this seems to come down to pressure to, you know, bang out or just quickly. Uh, and also there’s like this machinery that some people really hate using. So it begs the question, why would McDonald’s continue to use this whole setup? And I happen to know of one example of a past McDonald’s menu item that was actually removed from the menu completely for very similar reasons. And I called up someone who knows all about that.

Brian: My name is Brian Thompson, and for the past couple of years I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of why McDonald’s stopped serving pizza. 

Billy: Oh yeah. 

Adrianne: Do you remember this? 

Billy: No, this is just sort of one of those legendary things. I know there’s like people who are obsessed with this.

Adrianne: What? People are obsessed with the weirdest stuff!!

John: So that’s Brian Thompson. Brian hosts the podcast “Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s?” 

Regina: Oh wow.

John: He’s 140 episodes into this investigation.

Billy: Wow. 

Brian: I’ve been doing the show “Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s?” for roughly two years, but I’ve been curious about the matter for much longer than that. It was only about three years ago, though, that I Googled how to be an investigative journalist and thus became one. 

Adrianne: Hmm, I should do that.

John: I should mention here, “Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s?” is obviously a comedy podcast, but I do believe that all of the people that he’s talked to and all the facts that he’s gathered are actual facts in the real world. He just has kind of a colorful way of presenting them all. 

So pizza was on the menu at McDonald’s in the eighties and nineties and then it disappeared from the menu eventually, almost everywhere. Brian has spent 140 episodes of his podcast trying to get at why it was discontinued and if there’s any hope of getting it back on the menu. Obviously he specializes in pizza, but he has dabbled in McFlurry. 

Adrianne: Major in pizza, minor in McFlurry. 

Brian: I have a memory of McFlurries being swirled, but I’m not sure if this is some sort of a Mandela effect situation or not.

John: Okay, but recently you haven’t had one that’s swirled at all. 

Brian: No, and in fact, I’ve noticed I, it has been noticeable to me that they have not been swirled. And I know that when you, when you order a McFlurry, they give you a very special reinforced, square shaped spoon. 

John: Well and you know what that spoon is about, they actually are supposed to hook that spoon into the machine..

Brian: I did not know that.

John: Yeah, it’s got a little clip on the top.

Brian: I’ve noticed the clip, but I never realized it had a purpose. 

John: So from here I told Brian all about how the machine works and what the employees told me about, how long it takes and what a pain it is and how messy it is. 

Brian: I would imagine, there are some franchise owners that are just like more on top of things like that, like that would be like very upset if they had a McFlurry machine that wasn’t working properly or if people weren’t using it properly. And then other ones just don’t care. And so I,  that probably has more to do with it than anything. But again, it does raise the question of why they would have these, such horrible machines. 

John: So I actually looked into these machines a little bit. I started with the U S patent office to see if McDonald’s had a patent on the McFlurry machine, and we’ll get to that in a minute. But just as a sidebar, I was really surprised by the number of patents that McDonald’s actually has. It looks like they’ve only been granted 10 patents total in the U.S. which seems really low, but according to the U.S. patent and trademark offices website, there’s only 10. 

Adrianne: Wow. What are the patents for?

John: Yeah, so these patents are wild. In 1981 McDonald’s was granted a patent to the salad bar. 

Regina: What? 

Adrianne: amazing. Thank you, McDonald’s. 

Regina: Wait, does McDonald’s even have a salad bar? What>!

Billy: No! they don’t. Not the ones I go to. 

John: Another crazy one. They had one for a “student response system,” and this was a system where multiple students in different classrooms can answer questions to a central computer.

Regina: Wait, what?

Adrianne: Is this is for training?

John: It didn’t say this in the patent, but like I have to, for some reason, they’ve got this like weird tech patent. Uh, and then there’s also a joint patent granted to both McDonald’s and Coca Cola for an automatic beverage dispenser. And that was granted in 1993. 

Billy: You’re talking about a soda fountain.

John: We’re talking about a soda fountain. But weirdly, when I’m looking into all these McDonald’s patents, there is no McFlurry related patent anywhere in here. However, I did find one U.S. patent number 2607808S, which was granted in 1990 and expired in 2007. It is titled agitator for a food mixer and method of use thereof, and it was granted to the Vitamix corporation and Flurry International.

I can’t find anything about a company called Flurry International, but it does raise my eyebrows. And everyone knows the Vitamix corporation, they make blenders. 

Adrianne: We have a Vitamix in my home. 

John: Wow. That’s fancy. The drawing in this patent is identical to the McFlurry machines and going on this, I reached out to Vitamix directly and a representative told me, “I can confirm that Vitamix sells McFlurry machines to McDonald’s as part of a long standing relationship,” and just to close the loop, I’ve got visual proof here.

Billy: Yeah. Oh my God. The product name. Well, this is ifoodequipment.ca, a Canadian provider of food equipment, and this is the Vitamix VM0804a McFlurry ice cream mixer used. So this is a used McFlurry machine, which is identified with the name Vitamix and a specific product number.

Adrianne: And this is only $695 Canadian. 

Regina: Guys, if we split this, that is not a big deal. Totally have an underunderstood McFlurry machine.

John: The spoons are how they get you though. 

Adrianne: Yeah. It’s like a razor blade model. The spoons are $149.95 per pack of 500.

Billy: I guess this is the, the answer to that question. Why is the McFlurry so expensive? It’s the spoons. 

Adrianne: This whole system is so dumb. Like who came up with this dumb system, McDonald’s?

Billy: Vitamix. 

John: Yes. It seems like Vitamix makes these machines that McDonald’s employees don’t like to use at all. So for that reason, I asked if Vitamix has evolved the design over the years, made them easier to use if, if the process of making a McFlurry with the Vitamix machine has changed over time.

Uh, and this is what Vitamix wrote back to me. “Out of deep respect to our valued commercial partners. Vitamix generally does not discuss the details of products created for or used by any one specific partner.” I reached out to McDonald’s in the U.S. They never got back to me. I also reached out to McDonald’s, Canada.I figured that they might have some national pride over their Canadian invention, the McFlurry, and they did respond to me, in fact, so I asked them if the overall product or process of making a McFlurry has changed over time. They responded, “As always, we fill our McFlurry cup with smooth, vanilla, soft serve, and then add toppings like syrup, cookies, chocolate pieces, or candy, depending on which flavor we’re making. The process has stayed relatively consistent throughout the years.” By the way, I also asked them, uh, if the plural of McFlurries is spelled McFlurries with an IES or McFlurries with a YS at the end, and their response was “it’s either McFlurry treats or McFlurry desserts.” 

Adrianne: That’s so good. 

Regina: Not right. 

Adrianne: We have to go back and re edit the podcast all the times that we said McFlurries.

John: it’s not particularly helpful. Anyway, sounds like the process of making a McFlurry hasn’t changed very much at all since they debuted, but the Redditors have indicated that the design has been changing slightly. And a couple of days ago, another employee messaged me really excited because they had just started working at a brand new store that was built up from scratch, and they have an automatic timer on their McFlurry machine.

So I asked if that meant that they would be mixing the look flurries more often because of that, and they said that it’s too soon to say, but they will let me know how it goes. 

Regina: Wow. 

John: So Brian told me that in the case of pizza, it does seem like both prep time and equipment were actually really important parts of the decision to discontinue pizza altogether.

Brian: There are several explanations that McDonald’s itself has provided, and the most common of these explanations is that it simply took too long to make compared to other items at McDonald’s. Now of course, this is absurd because McDonald’s is at least a three or four bit operation and a two bit operations such as Little Caesars is able to provide pizzas that are both hot N’ ready.

John: That’s a good point. 

Brian: So I have a hard time believing McDonald’s wouldn’t be able to match this technology or supersede it. And then there also was the issue that some said that the pizza ovens just took too much space up in the kitchen. 

John: So this is where things get really interesting. I’m not the only person to have noticed this McFlurry trend.

Jemima: It would probably go back to like 2011 when I first started noticing that my big flurries would just ice cream with cookies on top, 

John: Jemima Skelley is a writer from Australia and in 2015 she noticed the same thing happening in McDonald’s there in Australia. 

Jemima: So when I was working at Buzzfeed, I wrote an article about how I was mad that McDonald’s stopped flurrying their McFlurries and I got so many comments from people being like, this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. So then I was like, well, it’s time to do an investigation. 

John: And how did that go? 

Jemima: Well, so I called McDonald’s and they told me that they stopped flurrying the McFlurries with the machine because it was taking up too much bench space.

Regina: Wait, did she say flurrying the McFlurries with the machine? 

John: Yeah, so she says they flurry the McFlurries. 

Regina: I love that. 

Billy: Does the machine spin the same direction there? 

John: But you’re missing the point. You are missing the point here. In Australia McDonald’s has officially stopped using the McFlurry machines.

Adrianne: In all of Australia??

John: Yes, it’s an official policy! They gave this statement to Jamaima “This change was made a number of years ago, but you will be pleased to know our McFlurry is still as popular as ever. The machines took up considerable space in our kitchen, so the decision was made that they would be hand stirred with love by our crew. If you like yours a little more flurried let the crew know and they will be sure to give it a more vigorous stir.”

Billy: Ughh.

Jemima: Yeah, so they told me that they were just phasing them out completely for bench space. 

John: So this is very different from in the U.S. where we still have the machines and they’re just not being used.

Jemima: What? Oh my gosh, that’s terrible. That’s even worse because then you can see the machine right there.

John: Oh yeah. No, it’s terrible. Literally, mine down the street over here, I walked in and they’ve got the power cable wrapped around it. It’s still sitting there on the counter. Yeah. 

Jemima: That’s a travesty.

Billy: This is space that can be used for a pizza oven! 

John: So you know in Australia, McDonald’s said that they would be hand starring McFlurries in lieu of using the machine. 

Jemima: So I went to five different McDonald’s in Sydney, and ordered McFlurries at each different one, and they were all given to me completely unstirred.

John: So she asked each of them to stir the McFlurries for her, and she got varying degrees of dirty looks from the folks behind the counter. 

That must have been very uncomfortable to ask these people behind the counter to stir your thing for you. 

Jemima: I know I felt kind of bad, especially cause I used to work at McDonald’s when I was 14 so like I know the pain.

John: Oh really?!

Jemima: Yeah, I know what it’s like having to deal with customers all day. And then someone being like, “Um, can you please stir my ice cream?” I’m like, I’m really sorry. 

John: Wait, so you worked at McDonald’s, did you? Did you make McFlurries? 

Jemima: I did. Yeah. I remember using that machine and it was fun. Like I enjoyed making them cause you get the little spoon and you stick it into the machine and juuj it all up. It’s good. 

John: But that was 14 years ago, and like Adrianne said, things have gotten a lot more hectic for someone working at McDonald’s. In Australia, McDonald’s officially acknowledged what’s already going on by just removing the machines from the equation. So then why are they still outfitting stores with the same bad machines here in the U.S.? I have a hunch it might just be because there’s not enough data to make the case to McDonald’s. I called 10 random locations in the U.S. and asked if they mix their McFlurries with the machine. So you, you really do use the machine with the spoon?

McDonald’s Employee: Yes, we do. 

McDonald’s Employee: Yes we do.

McDonald’s Employee: Yes. 

McDonald’s Employee: Yes, we do, but we don’t have it right now.

McDonald’s Employee: Yes, we do. 

McDonald’s Employee: We use the McFlurry machine. 

McDonald’s Employee: Yeah. Yes, we do. 

McDonald’s Employee: I know we do it at our store. Um, and all the stores around here are supposed to do it with the spoon. Um, and the machine, I’m not going to say that everyone always does it, but that’s how they’re supposed to do it. 

John: Okay. That’s really good to know. I also know, I found out that in Australia, they don’t do it at all. The machines have all been removed. 

McDonald’s Employee: Oh wow. 

John: 9 out of 10 of these stores said, yup, they use the machines. Now maybe that’s true. Or maybe they’re expected to use the machines, so of course they’ll say they use them. And when it comes down to it, the system to make a McFlurry never really worked that well in the first place. And not many customers really care if they’re mixed or not. 

So let’s get some real hard data. We’re setting up a website where we’re going to collect data about how often McFlurries are mixed and where. We’re going to call it the flurry index. 

Billy: Yes. 

John: For each McDonald’s location, the higher the flurry index, the more often they mix the McFlurries at that location, right?

So a flurry index of 30% means that the flurry is mixed 30% of the time. So the next time you get a McFlurry, see if it was mixed or not. And then go to flurryindex.com flurryindex.com and tell us what U.S. store you got your McFlurry from and whether your McFlurry it was mixed or not.

Regina: Should we bet on what state is going to have the best?

John: It’s definitely not the Northeast, because I know from experience that I haven’t gotten one in like a decade. 

Billy: I think it’s going to be wherever they have the most time. 

John: Mmm. But we will get the data because, uh, as soon as we start getting responses, they will start showing up on a, on a real time map of the U.S. — a color coded map, where you can start to see all of the hard data.

Billy: Oh wow. 

John: Yup. And once the data’s in, maybe McDonald’s will see some patterns and they’re gonna make it easier for their employees to consistently mix these McFlurries. These McFlurry treats, these McFlurry desserts. 

Billy: This is great. 

Regina: Does the winner get a lifetime supply of McFlurries? 

John: Well, this isn’t a contest, so no.

Adrianne: Underunderstood is produced by John Lagomarsino, Regina Dellea, Billy Disney and me, Adrianne Jeffries. 

Regina: You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, and wherever you listen to your podcasts. Also, we have a website underunderstood.com where you can find transcripts and show notes and other helpful things.

And please, if you like us, rate us on Apple podcasts. Don’t rate us if you don’t like us.

Billy: Thanks for listening. Say hi to your family for us at Thanksgiving. We’ll be back next week.

Adrianne: Do we need more sounds? Sounds from McFlurry? 

Billy: Oh yeah. Hold on. 

Regina: I’m going to get one tomorrow.