Sonic Drive-In - The Rise and Fall...And Rise Again

Sonic Drive-In is one of the largest fast food chains in the United States. This video focuses on a point where their business was struggling and how they recovered from it. It also takes a look at some major changes happening with them recently and the potential motivation behind them.

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Company Declines:
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[thebahooplamaster]

As a Sonic manager, all I’ll say is the beginning of COVID made our store absolutely explode in sales when restaurants were closing and going drive thru only and it was absolutely an insane sight to see.

[kesha]

Their logo is litterally red white and blue now. Partner with the damn Hedgehog already!

[ComicDrake]

man, I wish my local Sonic had "service at the speed of sound." >.>

[BananaPhoPhilly]

I feel like the last thing sonic needed to do was rebrand lol that seems like a non-issue

[cason]

I legitimately despise their new commercials with ppl sitting in their car critiquing their food

[zank]

They need to bring the two dudes back they carried the whole business

[PMLucian]

Never knew this channel existed until now. I think learning about this kind of stuff is awesome. Keep it up bruther

[ejr-mbty]

I love sonic. But damn the wait times are crazy. The number of times I’ve pulled in and driven away because no one took my order is a lot

[Leo-xyse]

Their new logo reminds me more of a gas station than a fast food restaurant

[theluigifan]

I’m still sad that SEGA didn’t use this restaurant to ever promote any of their Sonic games or even the Sonic movie but for their latest mainline 3D Sonic game, they used...

Hooters. To this day, this is still a baffling decision in my eyes.

[lagitrap]

I miss those two guys cracking jokes, seeing them all the time just got me used to them, and now I miss them ;-;

[Ersatz-wolf]

I currently work at one as a Manager and the most common problem I've seen with all 3 locations I've worked in is just keeping our employees. Training new people every day just to have them quit a few days later is pretty off putting. COVID really helped our sales and sent us into a big boom but we're so understaffed its almost impossible to keep our service up.

[MickeyFan]

I unironically miss the old commercials with the two guys. They weren't drop dead hilarious, but they were certainly more wholesome than the current commercials.

[nicholasgawler-collins]

I really can't look at the drive-in without thinking about Sonic the Hedgehog.

[Cadychan]

I was born in the US and grew up in Canada. I remember seeing commercials for Sonic on US cartoons we had taped, and since I loved Sonic the Hedgehog, I made it a "goal" to eat there one day. When I first came to Texas I was SO EXCITED to see one and eat from there.

[jlane]

Sonic was a staple of my childhood. I miss seeing the carhops. In many areas (specifically southern US) it’s a cultural thing. Highschool kids tailgating with a bunch of friends on a Friday night at sonic. I remember seeing it when I was little. I wish sonic could capitalize on that aspect, bring back the carhops to every single location, and advertise with that “cultural” aspect in mind. People don’t realize it but we all desperately want those little quirky restaurants and places to hang out at. Especially with so many restaurants today being so dull and drab

[lyly]

As someone who used to work at sonic, I will say that they had a great and unique design concept: having servers bring you food from your car, but with that comes slower service. I never go to sonic if I am in a rush, bc although it’s fast food it takes a while for each order to be taken out since there are normally only 3 carhops per shift, so if someone calls in, your under staffed, you have a lazy coworker, or stuff just simply gets busy, it takes a while longer than it would at other places. At my particular sonic, we had 18 stalls and sometimes I would be the only carhop due to being understaffed. Sonic is made for you to order and sit in the stall for a while to eat and enjoy so maybe take the time and be patient with your carhops bc they are doing there best!

[StargazerSkyscraper]

Sonic is awesome. Their ice is also strangely awesome, like hypnotically so. I don't like the new logo, but my local Sonic still has the blue and yellow one with red text, which makes my inner child very happy.

[TheVideomaker]

It’s surprising they’re not really located in big cities and are in more sparse locations, well at least for me. But I get Sonic commercials a lot of the time.

[rodneywilson]

The rebranding has just recently shown up in East Tennessee. And my wife HATES IT! She always points out how the pale blue looks so unappetizing. And I have to agree.
We both grew up with sonic and still love it. (I really wish they would bring back the pie shakes) and we’ll keep eating there but it’s ugly!