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Cantonment Sonic Abruptly Closes
September 2, 2013
There’s no official word yet as to why the Sonic restaurant on Highway 29 in Cantonment abruptly closed this weekend. Customers who drove into the drive-in chain were greeted with missing menu boards and a sign that stated “We Are Now Closed” and directed customers to another Sonic location on Pensacola Boulevard.
The restaurant was constructed in 2007.
Pictured top and inset: Missing menu boards at the now closed Sonic location on Highway 29 in Cantonment. Pictured below: A sign announcing the closure of the Sonic on Highway 29 in Cantonment. Photos by Kristi Smith and Brad Johnson for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
27 Responses to “Cantonment Sonic Abruptly Closes”
I frequent McDonalds and there was not a big crowd.
Better closed than to shame the franchise but
Pensacolians doesnt support anything or anyone
Even an idiot owner can search the internet for reviews of their restaurant, etc…They can look at comment cards and feedback received from corp office via 800 number to “see what the perception/opinion” of their place is…Owners today just think they can build it and people don’t have any choice but to come…Well, as we can see the people chose OTHER PLACES Mr. Owner. Bad service starts at the top!
Maybe Dean’s Drive-In in Atmore will open another store!
Tear it down and put a Chick-fil-A!
What goes around come’s around. Glad they closed…. Sonic stole money
from my family, for the property…. Love it……..
Good Bye……..
From what others have written, it is obvious why it closed.
David for good, conscientious workers
The area is losing population. Do a search on this.
Military is broke ,like the rest of the govt.
great another empty building in Cantonment….
I’ve been THERE several times. I’ve never had trouble with THEIR service. THEY’RE alright with me.
I would purchase a bag of ice from this location nearly every day, usually early in the morning. Numerous times I have pulled up after they were supposed to be open and no one was there. I called Corporate to let them know what was happening. They gave the manager my number and yes they did call me . They were very apologetic and asked me to PLEASE call anytime I had an issue. So, this tells me that maybe someone was trying to make it better. Including two girls that worked there who were always very nice, very friendly and VERY customer focused. I would love to see this store reopened with the right people running it.
What is a possibility is that this is a franchise and the owner of the franchise chose to close rather than try to bring in new management. Possibly the lack of revenue made it cost-prohibitive to re-open. Fast food is a service business and if the customer is left unhappy, they will not return.
Bubba’s post makes a lot of sense.
But I suspect this particular Sonic was a franchise operated by a newby with only one store and one chance to do it right.
And they failed.
We went there on Wednesday of last week and the carhop told us that their lease had run out and the owners decided not to renew it because they just weren’t making enough money. She said they were all being transferred to different stores, and that someone else had already leased the building out. I am interested to see what it will become now.
Yay! Another obese creating factory closes down! Seriously folks, is this really that big of a deal? One can easily make your own milkshakes at home and burgers can never be made better than a grill and family.
I went the begining of the Summer with my best friend and my 2 year old. We were the only car in the drive thru and they had only one on the side of us. It took us over 25 min to get a kids meal one combo meal and a corndog. She took my money right away or I would have drove off. My sonic next to my house is never this slow. The cashier never said thank you have a nice day nothing. Our tater tots tasted like they was fried in old grease and they was burnt. We called sonic head quarters to just let them know about service. I was offered a free meal at the same location. No thank you. I never went back. I have never had service issues at any other sonic than this one. I worked fast food when I was younger. There lease my be up and if they are making money they could pay the lease. Slow service bad service = no sales. I had a free meal there and didnt go back. I hope the employees get retrained and keep there jobs. Maybe this sonic can later make a comeback with a new crew and manager in the future. Its a great location.
Maybe instead of shutting it down and put people out of work and know a vacant building maybe bring in some real management to train and instruct the employees on how to do there job’s effectively.
I knew something was up! I stopped by last Tuesday morning for a Strawberry Limeade to keep at my desk. Pulled in and “not a soul to be found,” as my granny would say. Several of my former students from Tate worked there and they were always so friendly and sweet. I hope it re-opens soon!!
Horrible service! I don’t like to lump people in a category but the people working there seemed lazy and less than educated. I am not the smartest person in the world but I still get a good laugh out of this one….Went there and asked for a banana split in a cup not the boat like they normally come (Have asked this at several locations and NEVER had a problem) The girl told me they couldn’t do it because she had no way to ring it up. I asked her if she was serious? She told me to hold on a second and she would see if the manager could approve the change. He then came on the speaker and once again explained that they couldn’t put the banana split in a cup because they didn’t know how to ring it up. REALLY? (I was driving so a cup is easier) I left with a chuckle and never been back.
The last time I was there, I waited almost an hour for four milk shakes. I wouldn’t have stayed and waited that long if I hadn’t had kids at home waiting on milk shakes. I was so aggravated by the time I left that I swore I would never go back.
1/2 milkshakes were such a good deal that we would take the kids as a last minute before bed treat. The last few times we were there we waited a while in the drive through line. No big deal for us, we just enjoyed family time. We noticed multiple cars drive away because they had waited so long to be served. We will miss them!
We went Friday night also and ended up leaving after about 20 minutes of waiting and they would not take our order at drive through nor the pull in!
A few less arteries clogged.
This doesn’t surprise me one bit. I always had the worse service there
I cannot remember ever going there and getting served in a timely manner, and the manager did not seem to care at all.
We were there on Friday night and were told by the busgirl that they were closing; effective Saturday at 8 PM; right when they start 1/2 price milk shakes which were a big hit there. The girl told us that their lease had run out. I sympathized with her job loss, but she said they were all being transferred to other stores. I was surprised that Sonic didn’t have a better business plan to keep their doors open. We had actually been waiting on our food for 45 minutes, since they tend to serve the drive thru cars first. We got our last meal there for free.
Last time I went there I ended up going to McDonalds because the service was so sorry…20 min wait at drive thru for an ice cream.
Even though it was next to McDonalds and Burger King is visible from the location, they seemed to have a moderately steady flow of traffic. this Sonic got my business for 6 years pretty regularly. Such a shame that the jobs are lost.