There was a Sonic down the street from my high school and just about everyone worked there.
FTR- the skating this is totally optional. At the ones here they don’t pay extra, but I’ve been told that people are inclined to tip more if you are skating.
I never thought to tip at Sonic until my friends that worked there mentioned that people do. All I ever get is a soda, so I just tell them to keep the change ($.40 or something).
I want the same thing. And chili on the tots. And an ocean water. And a spicy chicken strip dinner with gravy. And…the nearest Sonic is burried somewhere in Toledo. 
<sigh>
Oh…the OP! I never really tipped them either. I didn’t even know that was supposed to, and judging by this thread I wasn’t wrong.
At the Sonics I went to in Houston and Dallas some of the carhops skated and some didn’t.
I have seen ONE girl on skates at Sonic, and I was mildly fixated b/c it was the first time ever that I’d seen one, despite the old commercials. (And as a mild hijack, anybody know if the skating carhops have to sign insurance waivers or something? You can screw yourself up a lot more quickly and efficiently on skates than you can on your own feet, even if you’re good.)
As far as tipping goes…I generally throw in an extra buck or two for Mr. Levins and myself. Mainly b/c when I discover that they have invariably not given me salt or ketchup or napkins or cheese on my sandwich, etc., I generally get what I need quicker than if I hadn’t tipped them.
Maybe that sounds weird–like I’m tipping them because I know they’re going to screw up my order to some extent–but it makes a circular kind of logic and I really enjoy salt, ketchup, napkins and cheese. ASAP.
Plus I have worked for tips for years, waiting tables and behind the bar, and it’s kind of a karma habit for me to tip even if I don’t really have to.
[QUOTE=ShibbOleth]
(this is more or less how one tips in Germany, Chaoticdonkey, for future reference), QUOTE]
Das wusste ich schon… what does it have to do with anything? 
Mayhaps you should keep some spare salt, ketchup, and napkins in your glove compartment just in case. Maybe even cheese, during the winter.
I do keep salt in my glove box (I am a salt fiend) but napkins and ketchup and cheese don’t keep particularly well, do they?
The funny thing is, this thread inspired me to go to Sonic tonight–even though they no longer have BLT’s or chicken-fried-steak sandwiches–and I couldn’t decide between the crispy chicken sandwich and the Chicken Club Toaster Sandwich…I finally decided on the latter…and then I got the former.
Without cheese.
And the reason I decided on the Chicken Club Toaster Sandwich was that it already came with cheese, so the chances of anybody screwing it up were minimal.
And yet they managed it anyway.
So I tip the car-hop two bucks, and I call in and say, “I’m so sorry, my sandwich doesn’t have any cheese,” because there’s no point in me telling them that I actually ordered the Chicken Club Toaster Sandwich and I got the damn Crispy Chicken Sandwich, and the guy goes, “Well, actually, I don’t have you down for cheese with that sandwich,” and I was big enough to go, “Okay, well, either way, I WANT CHEESE, and you can charge me for it.”
So he, in turn, decides to be “generous” enough to bring me a “free” slice of cheese…but no ketchup and no napkins and no marinara for my cheese sticks…
Dude. Sonic sucks.
Hold your tongue, blasphemer!
Sonic is a glorious place where one can taste the Tater Tots of the Gods. Just don’t get the popcorn chicken. It’s awful.
I guess I am in the minority here, but I have always found Sonic’s food to be…well…not that good. Not only is it not that good, but it is costs more then the average fast food.
I go there almost daily for drinks or ice cream, but I never eat their food anymore.
I never tip at Sonic. It’s not a full service restaurant and brining the food to my car isn’t all that special. It isn’t any more work to bring it outside than to the counter at Burger King. They don’t come to me to refill my drink or bring me extra stuff. One person doesn’t work one monitor. Each time you buzz in you’ll get a different person. They don’t do special work. No tip.
I was just about to post that I now know to keep the tipping thing in mind when I finally do go to a Sonic, but then I decided to look up the nearest one: 115 miles away! I could have sworn there were some near Baltimore, but now I think that I was thinking about Checkers. I see ads for Sonic all of the time . . . it seems somehow unfair that the nearest one is in Williamsburg.
I am, however, getting an adolescent kick out of the fact that said Sonic is on Rochambeau Drive.