Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Crew Members Earn Awards

Gurdon's Sonic Drive-In came out as one of the best in the nation, as judged in Panama City, Fla. last week. The announcement was made Saturday in Orlando, Fla.

It was a close race, but after six months of competitions and three days at the national finals of the Dr Pepper Sonic Games, Sonic's best of the best have been determined and the Gurdon Sonci was one of them.

Martha Smith was named the gold medalist in the Switchboard competition and Kim Ingrum took home the bronze medal in the Carhop competition.

The Sonic Drive-In of Gurdon won the chance to compete in the finals against nine other Sonic Drive-Ins from across the United States and came out on top.

Competition in the Super Sonic Games began in May 1997. The games are an employee crew development and incentive program designed to train crew members and reward them for a job well done. The games test crew members on service, quality, accuracy and speed.

"We are very excited to have competed in the national championship in Panama City," Mary Smith, manager of the Sonic Drive-In of Gurdon, said. "My entire crew made me extremely proud during the Sonic Games natioal championship."

Station champions were named for Fountain (drink preparation), Switchboard, (service delivery), Carhop (food delivery), Dresser (food preparation), Grill (food preparation) and Swamp (food preparation) stations.

"The Sonic Games helps us reward employees while improving their customer service abilities," Cliff Hudson, president and chief executive officer of Sonic Corp., said.

"Our focus on customer service has been recognized not only by our customers, but also by national business and trade publications," he said. "For the second year, Sonic tied Wendy's to beat the other major national hamburger chains in a consumer servey conducted by Restaurants and Institutions Magazine and published in its February 1 issue.

"We are very proud of that recognition and the many crew members that helped us achieve it," Hudson concluded.

Sonic is known for its cooked-to-order food served by carhops who deliver food directly to customers' cars.

Sonic has nearly 1,700 drive-ins in 27 sunbelt states. Sonic is the nation's largest chain of drive-in restaurants and America's fifth largest hamburger chain.

More than three-quarters of a million people eat at Sonic Drive-Ins everyday.