I think it might have worked even if you didn't go either.
I'm not convinced that there is an intrinsic reward for small boys in being quite in the appliance store. It's just boring. Sometime you have to provide some external threat/promise.
Of course at some point they might realize that the reward is a nicer mom who is not really irritable for the rest of the day but I suspect they are too young for that yet.
First: Mmmm . . . tater tots . . . *gargle*
Second: I'd say you're right about using food *in general* for motivation. But I also believe that sometimes a parent's best ploy is to gauge what will have the most profound teaching effect while avoiding any real harm. (Yelling at the top of your lungs, e.g., potentially fulfills the first goal while failing the second; a "timeout" that the kids don't care about fulfills the second but fails the first; caving into the kids fails both.) So you go with intuition.
Your kids' genuine surprise and subsequent good behavior suggests to me that in this case you nailed it.
I bribe my toddler with food almost every day. And stickers. I am not ashamed.
I, however, have never been forced to choke down boiling hot tater tots. For your courage under pain of mouth burns, I salute you!
What a coincidence; I just started rereading (er... rereading the first half of, and then finishing) the Kohn book of the same title.
Your kid-posts always give me food for thought (so to speak) as I consider my career and philosophy as a future educator without, as you say, the "practical distraction" of students of my own.
Just wanted to say thanks, and that I'm a big fan. And give Kohn his plug.
Ha! I love it! what an excellent idea to indulge yourself with THEIR reward! EX-CEL-LENT!!
Its not bribing. Its a reward system. You find something that motivates them (Sonic) and set up a way to earn it (being good in the store) and then if they meet the challenge, you offer the reward. My son has autism and we do this sort of thing all the time. Food is not off limits as a reinforcer but certainly its a strong reinforcer so we save it for the big stuff (like getting through church).
What might work is to break the behavior down to smaller pieces. Instead of "being good" in the store, they get smilies on a chart for "staying near mom" and "using indoor voice"... or for every 10 minute or 5 minutes that they go without issue, they get a mark. After they get 4 marks, they get to go to Sonic.
The thing with using this as a reinforcer is to stress the experience (and not the food) and also to not award this without them having earned it. Otherwise it devalues the power of the 'tot. 
Oh, and yes... you did earn it and they didn't. They are each individuals, so if one earned and not the other, the one who earned it should get the reward Although I think I would make it clear that Mommy's reward is a mocha latte or something to avoid eating the tots.
Dang, that's an impressive set of ovaries yer sporting over there! I have told my kids that they are not getting a promised reward because they didn't hold up their end of the bargain, but I've never gone to that extent. You are much braver then I am. This is like, I don't know, commando parenting! And it worked! I'm very impressed! Damn the fat grams, I'd say your little experiment was *well* worth an extra twenty minutes on the elliptical, or whatever your favorite form of exercise is. Rock on, Mama!
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