Sonic Drive-In (or just Sonic) is a fast food restaurant known for its drive-through-centric design and roller-skating carhops. But should you give a tip to these carhops or not?
You should tip at Sonic Drive-In if you had a good experience with the carhops, enjoyed the food, or want to show your appreciation for the service that they have provided. While it is not required to tip a carhop, and they rarely expect it, they always appreciate the extra money.
As a person who worked at Sonic for two years in multiple capacities, I have a lot of experience as a carhop and the Sonic tipping system. So let’s talk about some of the ins and outs of tipping workers next time you stop by to grab a drink.
What Is A Carhop?
A carhop is a person at Sonic who brings out your order to your car after it is made. They also collect your payment. They are the employee that Sonic shows in many of their advertisem*nts and are well-known for using roller skates while delivering items. (Roller skates are not used everywhere, but it’s what many people associate the carhops with).
A carhop has many duties within the Sonic restaurant. You may think that they are only responsible for delivering your food and drinks to your car, but that is not the case. Anyone who has worked a fast-food job can tell you that you have to juggle multiple jobs at once!
Carhops are responsible for keeping the inside and outside of the restaurant clean and organized, providing excellent customer service, stocking cups and lids, making drinks, and making ice cream. All of this is in addition to delivering your food to your car.
Sonic Drive-In Style Restaurant Tipping Guidelines
Should you tip your carhop at Sonic? Absolutely. If you enjoyed the service that they have provided to you, give them a tip. They are servers, even if they do it in a slightly different way than restaurant workers. You should especially tip the carhops who deliver your food while on roller-skates because they had to go through extra training and testing.
If you ordered a large amount of food and drinks, please give your carhop a tip. The red trays that Sonic uses are not very large and only have 4 cup holders. If you order more than 4 drinks or ice cream items, the carhops have no secure place to put them, and the items are at risk of falling, so they have to be extra careful when walking out to your car to deliver your food and drinks. This slows down the process and wastes their time when delivering large orders.
If it is really busy, please also tip your carhop. They are likely making ice cream, drinks, and delivering your food simultaneously, and are very stressed. I speak from experience when I say they will appreciate it if you give them a tip.
Sonic Average Tip Chart
Tipping Ranges
$ Amount A Carhop Receives
Low
$.50
Mid
$2
High
$5
Average Tip A Carhop Receives
Typically, a carhop receives $1 as a tip or the spare change that a customer does not want. I often received pennies as a tip. While it was appreciated, it is kind of frustrating to receive 2 cents as a tip.
Amount of Tips a Carhop Receives in one Day
As a carhop, I rarely received tips. On a very good day, I would get a total of $5 to take home that day. However, carhops at other locations received a lot more tips than I did. For example, a General Manager from another location that I know would get an average of $75 in tips a day. However, he was alone in the store for 6 hours because of labor costs, and the customers knew that and felt bad for him.
The best tip I have ever received at Sonic was a $15 tip on a $75 order. Since it took two of us to take the order out, we split it between the two of us, so I took home about $7.50 in tips that day. Sometimes, I had regular customers who knew me and would give me a $5 tip, but that did not happen frequently.
Is It Rude Not To Tip At Sonic?
It is not rude for you not to tip your carhop at Sonic. Carhops do not expect customers to tip them, but they always appreciate it. Carhops know that Sonic is a fast-food restaurant, and many people who go there do not have the time or money to tip them, so they do not expect it. So you are not being rude to the carhop if you do not give them a tip.
Carhops are expected to give their customers excellent service, no matter what. Therefore, the quality of service that you receive should not change regardless of whether or not you give your carhop a tip.
How To Tip At Sonic
If you can tip, try to give the carhop a $2-$5 tip, depending on how large your order is. When you tip, you have to give your carhop cash after they give you your order.
The larger your order is, the more work it takes to make and the heavier it is to carry. If your order is really heavy, then the carhop has to be careful taking it out to your car, and the more time it takes for them to get back inside the restaurant.
Can you leave a tip on the Sonic app?
The Sonic app does not currently allow you to leave a tip for your carhop. This is because sonic does not expect you to give tips to their workers. In addition, when you order ahead on the app, a specific carhop is not assigned to the order until you check in and they are ready to take it out, so the system would have to give the carhop a tip after you leave, and that would be complicated to program.
The Sonic payment system is not built to allow you to leave a tip electronically, even if you pay in the stalls. There is no way in the system to divvy up tips electronically to the correct people, so they have simply not made it possible for you to tip your carhop while paying with a card.
How Much Money Do Carhops Make?
Carhops make minimum wage when they first start working at Sonic, but that amount varies depending on the restaurant’s location. In some places, the starting wage may be as low as $7.25 per hour.
As a carhop gains more experience, or if they begin using roller skates to bring orders out, they can make more money every hour. However, the person who brings your order out to you may not actually be a carhop. As a manager, I often brought orders to people when we were short-staffed.
Carhops are usually the only Sonic employees that are visible to customers, but they do not make very much money per hour. So next time you are at Sonic, do a good deed and tip your carhop. It will make their day!
Thanks for reading! For more, check out Should You Tip Your Barber? | General Guidelines.
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It's not an easy job being a carhop, and it's generally uncommon for fast-food restaurant employees to receive gratuities. When was the last time you tipped a worker at McDonald's? And while SONIC's carhops are allowed to accept tips, customers may not be hip to it.
Average tips on a good day are about $50 to $70 and on a bad day as low as $20 a day. However many Sonic pay carhops $7.25 an hour. $10/hr on average after an afternoon shift/ good day (which is typical), $2 total at the end of a bad morning shift. Good day- during happy hour or opening shift until 2p.
Yes, all carhops keep their own tips. Yes, you don't always get tips from each customer but whatever you make whether it is cash or coins you keep at the end of the night. However you are responsible for any missing cash or fake money that comes in which will be deducted out of your tip pocket.
It turns out the reason you can't tip a Sonic employee with your card is the same reason you can still pay for your food with that card—technology. Sonic Vice President of Public Relations Patrick Lenow says the Oklahoma City-based company does not have the technology for you to tip your car hop with a card.
In a Reddit thread started by a newly minted skating Sonic carhop asking for advice, a person who said they worked as a skating carhop at Sonic wrote, "I worked at sonic when I was 16-18 in High school and wore quad skates as they are way more comfortable over long periods of time." They also got paid 50 cents extra ...
Fast-food workers are not considered tipped workers, despite the fact that many of these restaurants allow tips to be received, and so are entitled to the standard minimum wage with no opportunity for employers to count these tips against their wage.
The One Time It's Always OK to Tip With a Credit Card
If tipping in cash means leaving a smaller tip or no tip at all, put the tip on your card. Credit card fees and delayed payment aside, any service worker will take a larger tip on a credit card over a smaller one in cash.
When you tip with a credit card, you write the amount you wish to tip on your receipt, then sign the receipt to confirm the total amount (tip + bill) to be charged to your card. Unlike cash tips, credit card tips are processed and paid out to the service provider at a later date.
Sonic does take tap-to-pay at all of its many locations. You can use digital wallets such as Apple Pay at these, or you can use tap-enabled cards to pay for your food. Sonic has digital readers available at checkout to allow you to do this.
Hourly pay at Sonic Drive - In ranges from an average of $7.14 to $14.25 an hour. Sonic Drive - In employees with the job title Restaurant Assistant Manager make the most with an average hourly rate of $11.87, while employees with the title Waiter/Waitress make the least with an average hourly rate of $6.62.
Yes, for every 8 Hr shift we would get a 30 min lunch break no pay. Sometimes you will receive breaks, other times you won't. Just depends if you are busy or not.
You can pretty much stay as long as you want. Here's the thing that will cause issues. When we're closed if there's a car in the parking lot the local law enforcement will stop to check on the occupants.
Yes, absolutely! Our friendly carhops, as they are called, will be bringing you your food on roller skates or roller blades and taking special care of you. When you are done eating, they will even come and get your SONIC® trash and dispose of it for you if you would like. All you have to do is let them know.
You'll assist the drive-in restaurant's General Manager in managing drive-in operations. You will also be involved in training and supporting other employees to ensure we provide quality food in a clean, safe and efficient manner. We want every guest to have an enjoyable dining experience every time they come to SONIC.
Customer service and multi-tasking skills Our carhops earn up to $13.00 per hour PLUS great cash tips, so there is an opportunity to make excellent money! All that's missing is you, so APPLY TODAY! SONIC and its independent franchise owners are Equal Opportunity Employers.
As soon as you drive up to the speaker, we get a beep over our headsets and the transmission begins. If we don't answer you right away - we can hear everything. If we apologize and say we'll be with you in a minute - you're not on hold, we can hear everything.
You only get half off food (not ice cream) while you are working, and cannot give the discount to anyone else. No you only get half of your food as an employee.
Cash Back amounts are generally based on your final purchase amount and does not include taxes, shipping and the actual discount amount saved through coupons. Cash Back rates are subject to change, both up and down. You must start with an empty basket before clicking through to the retailer.
Sonic's ice features a soft crunch that die-hard fans call "the good ice". Thankfully, some Sonic locations even sell bags of ice at a very reasonable rate! However, if you really want to enjoy Sonic-style ice 24/7 you might want to consider installing a nugget ice machine in your kitchen.
Sonic provides their employees to receive their salary in one of two ways. The way is through a regular check that is mailed to the store which employees must pick up. The second way is by means of direct deposit. Paper check.
YES IT CAN! Like a Grilled Chicken Wrap, the SONIC Drive-In Restaurant Team Member position is a savory plethora of food service responsibilities rolled into one. You'll work Fountain & Frozen, Food Production, Grill, Fryer, Switchboard and, if applicable, Drive-Thru.
Sonic's is a fast pace job. You have to be ready for a long hard day at work, but eventually the hard work pays off. The customers are friendly and they tip.
Sonic Drive-In's PTO and Vacation policy typically gives 0-10 days off a year with 70% of employees expected to be work free while out of office. Paid Time Off is Sonic Drive-In's most important benefit besides Healthcare when ranked by employees, with 50% of employees saying it is the most important benefit.
Yet sometimes the etiquette is not to tip. Tipping is set on precedence and evolves over time, Smith said. If you're ever in doubt on whether or not you should or shouldn't tip, “It is always better to offer a tip than not to tip,” she said.
Even if the service is bad, or your food isn't right, it hurts everyone if you don't tip.” He recommends speaking to a manager about your concerns, and leaving a small tip rather than leaving none. “While the restaurant, bar or hotel set their own tip-out percentage, it generally varies between 4% to 10% of sales.
What the etiquette expert says: Just like at coffee shops, tipping on takeout orders is optional, says Orr. “There isn't an expectation that you tip since you haven't [received service].” If you're paying with cash, you can always round up or leave some change as a gesture of good will, but that's totally your call.
Average Sonic Drive-In hourly pay ranges from approximately $7.82 per hour for Prep Cook to $14.92 per hour for Driver Assistant. The average Sonic Drive-In salary ranges from approximately $17,324 per year for Kitchen Team Member to $136,935 per year for Unit Leader.
CHARLOTTE — Some call it “guilt-tipping.” Customers are being asked to tip seemingly everywhere in 2023. It's not just leaving 20% after service at a restaurant, now customers are faced with tablets and digital kiosks that request tips for counter service or even fast food.
Legally it's voluntary but if you slink out of a restaurant without leaving a gratuity of between 15 and 25 per cent, you're likely to be chased by a waiter demanding to know why. To help you avoid tipping anxiety (and disgruntled waitstaff), we explain how to tip in the United States.
Tipping is supposed to be a reward for excellent service, but studies have shown that the vast majority of people are motivated more by social pressure. Tipping is expected of them, and they don't want to deviate from a long-established norm — especially if other people are watching and possibly judging them.
Answer and Explanation: It is not mandatory to fill these fields but as a matter of precaution you should fill those field as if you leave them blank, the person can fill any amount as tip and later you have to get into complaints and all. So, it's better to fill the fields.
The double-tip trick: When a restaurant party, usually 6 or more, accidentally pays a tip for a bill that already had a gratuity factored in, the server is supposed to let you know of your mistake, or in the case where you already have left the restaurant – remove the second tip from your bill.
Even though many people prefer cash, at least places like restaurants, Instacart and Uber give you the option of tipping on your card. Still, I keep on hand a mix of $1 and $5 bills, and one or two $10s.
Yes, all carhops keep their own tips. Yes, you don't always get tips from each customer but whatever you make whether it is cash or coins you keep at the end of the night. However you are responsible for any missing cash or fake money that comes in which will be deducted out of your tip pocket.
It's not an easy job being a carhop, and it's generally uncommon for fast-food restaurant employees to receive gratuities. When was the last time you tipped a worker at McDonald's? And while SONIC's carhops are allowed to accept tips, customers may not be hip to it.
You don't have to, but it's very appreciated if you do. I am a sonic carhop and I have questions like this all the time. A lot of people feel as though sonic carhops should not be allowed receive tips, but they really should. My tips are how I make it through the week.
You don't have to, but it's very appreciated if you do. I am a sonic carhop and I have questions like this all the time. A lot of people feel as though sonic carhops should not be allowed receive tips, but they really should. My tips are how I make it through the week.
The idea behind the 60-60 rule is to only turn your music to 60 percent of its total volume level and listen to it for no more than 60 minutes per day. Noise-canceling headphones can be safer than earbuds because they reduce exterior sounds that may cause you to turn up the volume past safe levels.
Your first incident is a warning. After that, if you receive three write-ups, you are terminated. As a carhop, if you are short money, you can either pay back what you owe or get written up. This may or may not be true, but if a significant amount of money is missing (50-ish+ dollars), the police are called.
Each customer received a mint with their order, a tradition to remind customers that they were "worth a mint." Smith had the prototype of the future Sonic. In 1956 Charlie Pappe, manager of a Woodward supermarket, partnered with Smith and opened a second Top Hat Drive-In.
Introduction: My name is Stevie Stamm, I am a colorful, sparkling, splendid, vast, open, hilarious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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