Sonic Drive-in

There is a Sonic within walking distance of my house. The 2 or 3 times I have actually parked, I tipped- minimally. That is the reason that I don't park. I don't want to tip someone to bring me mediocre fast food. I usually go through the drive thru and mainly for drinks, not food.

We always tip the sonic car hops. They bring the food to the car and take the trash, the tray, all kinds of running back and forth if the order isn't right, etc....so yes, I do tip them.

If my order is $10 then I usually give them a couple of bucks. If we go inside then I leave more but not much. It's not like they refill my drinks for me and take my order and stuff.

I worked at sonic from the age of 15 to 18 as a carhop. At that time we made minimum wage NOT waitress salary. However, we were worked harder than the others. We had to answer and take orders, bag all the food, make every drink and take it out. This is more than a waitress does but we made more in paycheck, less in tips than an average waitress. A dollar per customer is completely fair. On a good day i used to make 30, a bad,,,,10...on a great day id make 40 or more. Half of people dont tip.

Of course this was over 10 years ago im sure a few things have changed.

as a matter of fact.........in my city they wont let you tip now on the receipts, sometimes i get my girls shakes from there and im sure to bring cash for that reason.

A dollar or two.....

In Texas, I have NEVER seen on my receipt ANYTHING that says we should tip. I used to tip YEARS ago.... like 15 years ago when I was a high schooler and thought I was supposed to. But then a gal at church told me she worked at Sonic and that she made minimum wage and so tips are just bonus - they aren't paid like a waitress or waiter in a restaurant. They made good money. Since then, I have never tipped. Not unless it's "$1.08" and all I have is a quarter. I may say "keep the change" but that's not too much change to keep. :( I am at Sonic weekly, never tip, and always get the same smiling faces serving me. If they were pissed, you'd think they'd stop being so nice to me. ??

hmm. I just read Brigett's answer. Perhaps I am wrong? Perhaps it's different per state? I believe Sonic is a franchisement, so maybe each Sonic pays differently?

We have 4 Sonics within a five mile radius of us! I use my debit card. They have a slide machine right under the menu They don't give me a recipe, so there is no way for me to tip. We do not carry cash on us ever. We don't eat out often, when we do it's a spur of the moment thing, no time to get cash. If they gave a receipt like restaurants do, I could add a tip.

Yes, you should tip them.

We do a dollar or two.

For a drive in, I tip the same as at a sit down restaurant. 10-20% depending on how good and how much the service was/involved. The waitress does just as much work as one in a sit down restaurant.

I don't tip at a drive thru.

In response to one response. The person who roller blades the food out to you is doing all the same work as a waitress inside. The inside waitress doesn't prepare your food either. Both bring you the food and follow up if you want something else. Their job is to please you.

The person at a drive thru hands you the food that someone else hands them. When I over think the situation I wonder if we shouldn't tip the fast food people too, drive thru and at the counter. We do not because the system isn't set up for them to accept tips.

We always tip, but not a lot. It's usually a few bucks.

I usualy do 15% IF the service is excellent. Less if the service is average and nothing if the service is poor.

The worst tip I ever left was at a BBQ restaurant. We, about 10 of us, were having a business meeting and we broke up for lunch. We all went to the same restaurant, but broke up into table sized groups so we wouldn't have a long wait. We were there about 5 or so minutes when a waiter came sauntering by. We tried to get his attention, three times but he just kept walking by. The fourth time my friend tapped his arm as he went by. He turned to look at us and my friend asked for some iced tea and some water for the other two of us. The waiter replied, "When I get time, I'll come back." and abruptly turned and left. It went downhill from there. I finally got up, folded my napkin over my arm and went to the waiter's station, got a pitchure of water and of iced tea and three glasses and went back to our table. (I'm dressed in a log sleeved white shirt, business tie, and suit pants.) I poured the iced tea and water and sat down. The waiter came over and asked who left the pitchures of iced tea and water on our table? I told him I did and he got mad and basically said, "you can't do that". (I had to get water and refill our glases once more.) He eventually took our order and when we finished, we stacked all the plates and saucers on top of one another and turned a coffee cup upside down on the top of this stack and put two pennies on the bottom of the up-turned cup. We took our bill and went to the cashier to pay and the manager came over and told us we were supposed to pay our waiter. We told him of the lousy service and the waiter's comment about waiting on us when he got time. We told him where we sat, paid our bill and left.

Why the two pennies on the top of this stack? We didn't want the waiter to think, we stiffed him, but we wanted to put in (tell him) our two cents worth about his service.

Good luck to you and yours.

Just so you know -- the car hops, the ones that bring the food to your car make subminimum wage (just like a server in a restaurant). My stepdaughter worked there for a few years, and I think she made something like $2.40 an hour. And she paid taxes based on the total sales of the restaurant. It's hard to explain, and I haven't been a server in over 30 years, but say your total sales were $100. The gov't ASSUMES that you made 15% in tips and makes you pay taxes on that money - if you did or you didn't doesn't matter to Uncle Sam. They take those taxes out of your $2.40 per hour.

However -- If I get poor service at a Sonic, I do tip accordingly. And you can ask your car hop to add a tip on your debit card.

A couple of dollars. I love their BLT, not on the menu posted but they still make it, mmmm!

I usually just go there for drinks & tip maybe 25 cents for one drink. But when I get food, I don't carry that much cash, so I use my debit card & you can't leave a tip on that & I feel bad then. I try to give some change, 75 cents maybe?

We have always tipped..
If we eat a meal I tip 20%

If it is just a drink.. 50 cents.

At a restaurant where someone actually waits on me, I tip 20% or more. At sonic, they rollerblade me out what someone else prepped. I usually give them a dollar or so.

I have only ever went through the Drive thru. I had no idea, but it does make sense. I would probably give them a few bucks if the service is good. Love their slushes, I was totally addicted to them when I was pregnant, lol.

a dollar or down. most leave the change to the next dollar and say keep it. if it is $1.68 you give $2 and say keep it.

I do tip them. My sister used to be a "car-hop" before she worked there I had no idea that you should tip them, and now I do everytime. I usally give a $1 for bringing drinks, & $2-$4 (depending on what was ordered, speed & accuracy)

I need to pay attention to my receipt!!! I never knew you should tip them!! I guess I figured since it was fast food that it didn't require a tip. I guess that's some food for thought :-)

I think the only time we did the server thing we let her keep the change. I try to tip appropriately, but sometimes it's hard to know what's best because EVERYBODY has a tip line or a tip jar.

Interesting note: in the UK, it is not very common to tip, even though there is a tip line on some bills. DH tried to tip a very good waiter and they crossed it off.