How can you explain Buc-ee’s? in the purest definition, it’s a roadside gas station and convenience store, but it’s really so, SO much more than that. A friend of ours gave this description several years back, after her first visit to a Buc-ee’s, and I still think it’s spot on.
I stopped at Buc-ees. It’s a pornographic fever dream where Wawa and a Live, Laugh, Pray kitchen plaque had a four way with a Sam’s Club and a Cracker Barrel. My tub of soda was .49 cents and I ate the hell outta that brisket tho.
What Buc-ee’s Offers
Buc-ee’s has gasoline, (from 80 to upwards of 120 pumps per location, with typically cheaper prices than surrounding gas stations), plus a huge variety of fresh made and packaged foods:
All travel center locations include a bakery, brisket and fudge bar, snack aisle, soda, coffee, and an Icee station. Stores have various candy and beef jerky flavors to purchase including a beef jerky bar. Product offerings include cookies, kolaches (Czech pastries), and other pastries in the bakery, BBQ brisket sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, and breakfast tacos/bowls/burritos/sandwiches at the brisket bar along with cold-cut wraps and sandwiches. Packaged cups of fruit, vegetables, and desserts can be purchased as well. Locations also house packaged general snack foods like nuts and fudge, ice cream and Dippin’ Dots, water, soda, energy drinks, and alcoholic drinks. The company has produced many of its own original snack foods including Beaver chips, potato chips made on site. The most notable snack are “Beaver Nuggets” (flavored corn puff snacks), the company’s best-selling product. (Source: Wikipedia)
Buc-ee’s Souvenirs and Merchandise
Along with that, they sell a large variety of souvenirs and general merchandise:
Besides food and drinks, the company offers a variety of general and regional-based souvenirs, including apparel and artwork. The chain carries its own clothing brand, ranging from t-shirts to hats, pants, plushies, swimwear, and blankets. Stores also carry general kitchen goods: cast iron skillets, food containers, mugs, glassware, cookbooks, coolers, and thermoses among others. General travel products are sold along with phone accessories. Various locations sell hunting gear and equipment alongside outdoor products like grills and firepits. (Source: Wikipedia)
Some Buc-ee’s locations also boast a car wash (the one in Katy, TX is the largest car wash in the world) and/or multiple Tesla Superchargers.
Oh, AND they’ve gotten awards for having the cleanest bathrooms in the country (if not the world).
Click here to see what the inside of one of their stores looks like.
Buc-ee’s Expanding Across the U.S.
Buc-ee’s has been around since 1982. For decades, it was a chain limited to Texas, with over 40 locations scattered across the state. But in 2019, the first non-Texas Buc-ee’s opened in Loxley, Alabama. Since then, the chain has continued to grow, with locations in:
- Alabama (Athens, Auburn, Leeds, Loxley)
- Colorado (Johnstown)
- Florida (Daytona Beach, St. Augustine)
- Georgia (Calhoun, Warner Robins)
- Kentucky (Richmond, Smiths Grove)
- Missouri (Springfield)
- South Carolina (Florence)
- Tennessee (Crossville, Sevierville)
- Texas (too many to list LOL!)
They’re also in the midst of either building, or are in the planning stages to build, Buc-ee’s locations in:
- Arizona (Goodyear)
- Arkansas (Benton)
- Mississippi (Harrison County)
- North Carolina (Mebane)
- Ohio (Huber Heights)
- Virginia (Rockingham County and New Kent)
- Plus another store in Tennessee (Murfreesboro)
Wisconsin’s Potential Buc-ee’s Location
However one of the Midwest states may want to start dreaming of cheap gas, Beaver Nuggets and BBQ, because it was recently announced that Buc-ee’s was interested in buying some vacant farmland in Wisconsin. It would be their first store in the Badger State.
The space they’re looking at is in Oak Creek, about 35 miles south of Milwaukee and on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to city documents, they’re trying to get approval to build 120 fueling stations and a 74,000sf travel center.
Buc-ee’s told the Oak Creek Plan commission that similarly sized mega-sized travel centers under their umbrella consistently see nearly 100,000 visitors a week. Buc-ee’s would also employ more than 175 residents full-time with benefits – they would earn an average minimum wage of $18-20 per hour.
“Buc-ee’s provides a unique opportunity to the City and its residents in terms of ‘Goodwill Impact’ like no other,” Buc-ee’s told the commission. “In addition to the project paying its own way in terms of utilities and resource consumption, Buc-ee’s has proven time and again to serve its community.”
Good luck, Wisconsin!
*** Many thanks to Meghan M. for her spot on description of Buc-ee’s!
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