I am wondering if anyone is having the same issue as me with these shops. Sonic requires you to do a bathroom check even when ordering from a stall. I have only down two, but both times I felt this incredibly awkward. The employee seemed to be confused I would ask this and I had to get out of my car both times and wait by an unmarked door for some employee to come and let me in. I did notice on the report form it says this only applies to "public bathrooms". Are their bathrooms considered public? I am not sure I want to continue to do these because it really makes no sense, especially if you shop the same one multiple times.

When they deliver my food, I ask the Carhop if they have a public bathroom. If they say no, I mark they have no public bathroom. If they say yes, I ask where it is, so I can ensure I go in the correct door. Once you do the same Sonic's several times, you will remember if they have one or not.

If they are accessible to customers they are normally “public restrooms.” The two Sonics near me have an unmarked door but once accessed there are women’s and men’s signs on each door. If they were not public restrooms I think they would tell you restrooms were for employees only. One of the Sonic locations I shop keeps the restrooms unlocked but the other you need to have an employee unlock it you.

I went into an unmarked door one time, and was told the restrooms were for employees only. Now I only check if there is a sign.

I concentrate mainly on the drive-thru Sonics since restroom check is not required for those. I also refer to a list I made of Sonics with unlocked public restrooms and Sonics with no public restrooms. There enough Sonics around here, that I do not do a stall shop unless I know it has no public restroom or has an unlocked one.

I think that is going to be my approach. It's weird and uncomfortable to ask to use the restroom at a place that is essentially a drive thru.

I have a real simple policy when it comes to using restrooms and checking restrooms. If the restrooms are locked they are not public restrooms. I do not, and will not, ask permission to use a restroom.

I always use the "I have to wash my hands to eat" excuse.

I believe the unmarked back door is an indication of no public restroom, and my shops have been approved following that. The interior door signs would still be required for the employees. In the past, asking a carhop has felt like they were making an exception allowing me to use their restroom.

Me too

I remember with the old MSC, I had to ask one of the car hops if they had a bath room that I can used to wash my hands.

She let me used it but it was inside.

Back in the old days, almost no Sonic had a public bathroom and if they did it was pretty nasty. And the pay and reimbursement for Sonic shops was minimal. Then about 10 years ago, the reimbursements and fees went up. And Sonic apparently decided it wanted all its Sonics to have bathrooms. For a while, the previous MSC wanted a photo of the bathroom. Then the pandemic happened and the bathrooms were all locked. No bath photo requirement with the current MSC. Some have a public bath and some don't. A lot of the ones that had a public bath before the pandemic have stopped offering it, taken the restroom signs down and locked the doors. A friend who works for Sonic told me they have had problems with homeless individuals or criminals entering the bathrooms doing drugs, making a massive mess, or waiting there and mugging customers. Since most are outside toward the back of the building, it is easy for someone to walk in without being seen. When I arrive at Sonic, I drive around the building. If there is a door marked bathroom, I check it. If not, I report public restroom not available. I have done a bunch of the shops and haven't had a single question and my shops are always accepted. I figure if there is no sign customers can see, then there is no public restroom available to customers.

I am doing my first Sonic today. Says what time did message board say carhop is on the way. Do I stare at this for at least 5 minutes which I presume is a decent amount of time to wait for my order? Sounds bizarre to want to know what time this message appears. What if it doe not appear and I am staring at this board until the carhop arrives with my meal? I have taken note of the restroom scenarios too so thanks for the heads up on that issue.

@big_sky_thunder wrote:

I am doing my first Sonic today. Says what time did message board say carhop is on the way. Do I stare at this for at least 5 minutes which I presume is a decent amount of time to wait for my order? Sounds bizarre to want to know what time this message appears. What if it doe not appear and I am staring at this board until the carhop arrives with my meal? I have taken note of the restroom scenarios too so thanks for the heads up on that issue.

Hope your shop went well. Let us know how it went..

I will usually look ahead and then every two minutes or so I will glance over to see if the message appears.

All the Sonic shops I have done with the old and new MSC it will say XXXX is heading your way with your order

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2023 06:23PM by Isaiah4031a.

HAHA. Yes, you have to watch for it because it disappears rather quickly. I am always watching the time on my phone so I know about when to expect them, plus if you are parked by the door you can usually recognize your order.

Rule of thumb- the message is usually about 10 seconds before the food arrives. HTH.

@big_sky_thunder wrote:

I am doing my first Sonic today. Says what time did message board say carhop is on the way. Do I stare at this for at least 5 minutes which I presume is a decent amount of time to wait for my order? Sounds bizarre to want to know what time this message appears. What if it doe not appear and I am staring at this board until the carhop arrives with my meal? I have taken note of the restroom scenarios too so thanks for the heads up on that issue.

That message disappears quickly, sometimes lasting a couple of seconds. If you don't fix your eyes on the screen, there is a good chance you will miss it.Sometimes it never appears. Once, it appeared after my order arrived.

I have never once seen that message on the Sonic screen

The shop was approved within 3 hours of me submitting it. The guidelines state to look for things that are not on the survey, nothing new there, I experience that with lots of MSCs. The clincher was the narrative where I comment on the shop. I wrote 1000 characters (NOT words) and it was denied until I whittled it down to 2 sentences which met the requirement of 165 characters (I believe that was the #?)

I also noticed on my most recent Sonic report that the narrative had a maximum character limit.

@big_sky_thunder wrote:

The shop was approved within 3 hours of me submitting it. The guidelines state to look for things that are not on the survey, nothing new there, I experience that with lots of MSCs. The clincher was the narrative where I comment on the shop. I wrote 1000 characters (NOT words) and it was denied until I whittled it down to 2 sentences which met the requirement of 165 characters (I believe that was the #?)

I saw that too! I like it. It seems like they would always give me a lower rating when I kept the narrative to a short sentence or two, and I felt compelled to add an extra comment or two.

Howard: I got it straight from the MSC, YES it is considered a public restroom.

I believe the last time I did a Sonic shop, I wrote a couple of short sentences and I received an 10

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2023 11:23PM by Isaiah4031a.

@ShopperGirly wrote:

I also noticed on my most recent Sonic report that the narrative had a maximum character limit.

@big_sky_thunder wrote:

The shop was approved within 3 hours of me submitting it. The guidelines state to look for things that are not on the survey, nothing new there, I experience that with lots of MSCs. The clincher was the narrative where I comment on the shop. I wrote 1000 characters (NOT words) and it was denied until I whittled it down to 2 sentences which met the requirement of 165 characters (I believe that was the #?)

Yeah and it's only 125 characters. can't say much with that.

I've also noticed they've been having some technical issues with the questionnaire lately. Last month I had a question that turned into an OOPS! if I answered it, the questionnaire would only go through if I left it blank. I had to contact the scheduler to get that fixed.

On this round, I notice the auto-populated answer for the type of assignment (stall, drive-in etc.) isn't auto-populating, you have to check the box yourself.

I mark that they don’t have one unless there’s a sign and the door is unlocked.