Even though the workers actually come out to you, I’ve always treated Sonic like any other fast food restaurant, in that I pay for my order, but don’t give anything extra to the person giving me my food.
But the other day after I got a sundae there, I looked at the receipt and noticed at the bottom it had a suggested gratuity, in this case 32 cents or 15 percent of the total.
So have I been a cheap bastard all this time by not tipping the Sonic carhops, or have they only recently started asking for tips?
The Sonic restaurants in my town have drive-through windows, and I always use those to save money because if they come out to my car I feel obligated to give them a buck. The one in my mom’s town only has the bays (or whatever you call them) so I resign myself to tipping when I go to that one.
I have also been to a Sonic that had a drive-through speaker but no window, so they still came out to your car when you pulled up. I didn’t tip then, because I wasn’t prepared for that nonsense.
I pay-at-the-pump at Sonic and there is no option to add a tip to my charge.
People I knew who worked at Sonic said tips were not an expected part of their compensation, where always welcome, and came from 20% or fewer of the customers
Yeah, if there’s no option to add a tip to the credit card, generally speaking tips aren’t expected. It’s possible there’s exceptions to this rule, but I haven’t encountered them yet.
That said, they do a fair bit more work than most fast food workers, so I try not to eat there unless I have a buck or two in my wallet for a tip, or if I’m paying in cash I’ll have them keep the change.
Yeah, most Sonic stores aren’t well set up for drive-through, but it’s so expected of fast food restaurants these days that they had to work it in somehow to the older buildings they couldn’t remodel.
I tip generously at Sonic, because of the skates. Anyone willing to break an ankle to bring me a double cheeseburger deserves a little something extra.