The Money-Saving Reason You Should Be Using Sonic's App

Sonic is a restaurant with a very unique concept. Unlike other restaurants that primarily focus on drive-thru or dine-in eating, Sonic looks back to the proverbial good old days for inspiration, using the classic carhop model of serving. For those who may not know what carhops are, they were employees who brought the food directly out to you while you sit in the car, sometimes on roller skates. 

While Sonic didn't necessarily invent the carhop business model — indeed, the first carhop restaurant was a Texas BBQ restaurant back in the early 1920s (via Car Talk) — this unique business model has helped to make the chain a common American restaurant. The restaurant has 3,545 locations across the United States (via ScrapeHero), an impressive number for a business that operates using a model that differs from the conventional modern-day drive-thru.

But no matter how nostalgic one may get when pulling up for a burger and some Sonic's famed slushies, the chain is still a modern restaurant at the end of the day. Like most modern restaurants, it has a mobile app that promises a wide variety of deals and savings. While that may sound like your average marketing talk to try and get you to download an app, there's actually a very good money-saving trick you can use as many times as you want — the only catch is you'd have to be pretty thirsty to take full advantage of it.

Happy hour refers to a select period when certain drinks and food products are for sale at a discounted price. Of course, this period is usually for a very brief amount of time. Sonic has a happy hour of its own, usually around 2 pm to 4 pm each day, giving one a brief 2-hour period to get your discounted burgers and slushies. With the Sonic app, however, you can change those rules a bit.

According to Sonic, downloading the app gets you the exclusive bonus of using the Happy Hour deal all day. This means that you can still get half off your favorite drinks, even outside the 2-4 pm window. The deal is limited only to drinks and slushies, and you must place the order using the app. You can get half off cheeseburgers, but those are available only on Tuesdays after 5 pm when ordered online.

There have been times before that Sonic has had an all-day Happy Hour for everyone, even for those who don't have the app. One such example was in 2012 when Sonic introduced an all-day Happy Hour to "celebrate" Tax Day on April 17 (via PR Newswire). Whether you download the app or not, it wouldn't hurt to take a look at Sonic's secret menu for other tricks on how to get the most out of your experience.