New Data Reveals Missouri McDonald’s Ice Cream Fail Rate

Whether or not a McDonald's ice cream machine will be operational has become something of an urban legend. Many estimate failure rates are sky-high based on their experiences, but what's the truth behind this cone conspiracy? There's new data that thinks it can predict the likelihood of ice cream machine failure rates specifically for McDonald's in Missouri.

I had someone reach out from the Action Network to alert me about this fun new McDonald's ice cream machine tool that is based on some real science. Their utility lets you enter the city you're in and it queries the database that looks at nearly six years of reported machine status across 492 cities and all 50 states. Here are the results for the biggest cities in Missouri:

• Columbia, Missouri - 79.6% chance it's working
• Springfield, Missouri - 86.1% chance it's working
• St. Louis, Missouri - 79.8% chance it's working
• Kansas City, Missouri - 80.6% chance it's working

For fun, I looked at Kansas City, Kansas compared to Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas locations have an 86.1% chance they're working. Why? I estimate that people in Kansas have nothing else better to do than focus on maintaining their ice cream machines while they stare out over their barren prairies.

For the record, I have nothing against McDonald's and they are not alone in their fast food struggles sometimes. I went to a Mexican fast food restaurant that shall remain nameless (run for the border) and placed my order in the drive-thru only to be told that they had run out of meat. That makes taco creation very difficult, by the way.