Sonic corp. is but one-fifth the size of McDonald's domestic burger business. But, unlike its larger rival, it doesn't have to worry about pre- tending to be health-conscious or luring kids with plastic toys from the latest aniflick. A determinedly retro fast-food organization, the Oklahoma City- based chain of drive-ins still has a stubbornly high-calorie menu delivered by 1950s-style carhops on roller blades. How hard is it to screw up that formula? Pretty easy, apparently. Which is why J. Clifford Hudson grimaces at the memory of taking over in 1995 as chief executive, a decade after he'd joined as house counsel. For starters, menus differed from store to store―Slaw Dogs served up in the Car-olinas; ice cream sundaes peddled by a renegade franchisee in Texas; deep-fried "Pickle-Os" furtively sold in Sonic's own backyard. Even within the same city, it was easy to find radical taste variations in Tater Tots because franchisees bought ingredients from different vendors.
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