‘You want to spend money in there’: Buc-ee’s is reinventing the gas station in Texas and beyond
Texas cult favorite Buc-ee’s is bringing its massive convenience stores and gas stations to new states, hoping that people nationwide will pause their road trips for bathrooms, brisket and Beaver Nuggets.
Buc-ee’s builds massive convenience stores and gas stations along major highways, some with 100 or more fuel pumps, and advertises them with billboards sometimes hundreds of miles away with cheeky sayings like “I like big Buc-ee’s and I cannot lie” and “my overbite is sexy.” Known especially for having clean, spacious bathrooms, the stores also serve up fresh barbecue, homemade fudge, Buc-ee’s-branded snacks like Beaver Nuggets (sweet corn puffs), decor, gifts and clothing — notably, a wide array of products featuring the brand’s beaver mascot.
The chain opened its first location outside of Texas in 2019, in Alabama. Since then, it has opened 15 locations outside of the Lone Star State, introducing a new approach to gas stations and convenience stores to people outside of Texas. The company positions its stores as places people make a point to stop at during road trips, rather than an afterthought.
Arch Aplin III, who came from a family of entrepreneurs, founded Buc-ee’s with a small convenience store near Lake Jackson, Texas, in 1982 and grew the chain within the state for decades, evolving the stores into the “travel centers” they are known for today with bigger and bigger locations over the years. The company rarely shares sales information, but according to Texas Monthly, the chain’s revenue grew from $202 million to $959 million from 2006 to 2015. That was before it opened several more locations in Texas and began its national expansion.
The brand has already accumulated a massive fanbase that transcends state borders. One private Facebook group called “Buc-ees Love” has reached 280,000 members. Another, “BUC-EES LOVERS ❤️,” has 246,000 members. Many more have also reached tens of thousands of followers, including groups solely for buying and selling Buc-ee’s merchandise.
Buc-ee’s also went viral for seemingly misspelled or even controversially-placed billboards: one that said “hodwy” instead of “howdy” and another with “slay” in giant yellow letters underneath an ad for a firing range.
The company operates 50 stores, with 35 in Texas. After opening in Alabama, it has since opened stores in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri and Colorado. Five more stores will open in 2025 or 2026 in Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and Virginia. The company also just broke ground on its first location in Ohio. Some of its newest stores top 70,000 square feet, almost twice the size of the average grocery store and roughly 30 times the size of a typical convenience store.
Still, “it’s not that they have 100-plus gas pumps, it’s not that it’s a 20-something-acre lot,” said Jeff Lenard, vp of strategic industry initiatives for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “What resonates with people is the customer experience.”
The success of Buc-ee’s, Lenard said, comes through making previously unenjoyable tasks during road trips — stopping to go to the restroom, finding food or getting gas — something people look forward to.
Lenard said as about a quarter of people who come through a convenience store stop and use the restroom, that’s what can make or break the experience. For many visitors to Buc-ee’s, the highly praised bathrooms often kick off a much longer stay in the store.
After walking out of the bathroom, they’re met with food theater, as Lenard calls it, with brisket being cut in an open kitchen. They may see the Buc-ee’s beaver mascot and want to take a picture with him. The merchandise is uniquely displayed and constantly changing. Plush beaver toys may be displayed in a Buc-ee’s-themed pickup truck, while its line of Bucc-ee’s branded t-shirts rotate through various seasonal designs.
“All of a sudden, you’re just kind of swept away with, ‘What am I experiencing? I’m not sure, but I want to spend more money here,’” Lenard said.
The average time people spend in a convenience store is three minutes and 33 seconds, according to NACS. At the typical gas station, customers may be on and off the lot in less than 10 minutes. “I’m not sure I’ve heard of anybody ever spending 10 minutes or less at a Buc-ee’s,” Lenard said. “You want to spend time in there, and you want to spend money in there.”
Lenard said the challenge for Buc-ee’s as it expands will be meeting new visitors’ sky-high expectations set by existing fans. “The expansion will involve them having to continue to tell the story, and not only tell the story, but they have to get it right every time,” he said. “It’s harder to meet really, really high expectations. It can be done, but it’s harder.”
Gary Orosy, adjunct professor of marketing at Southern Methodist University near Dallas, said Buc-ee’s has all the elements that help build brand equity: it not only provides necessities to travelers, but it’s enjoyable and fun, has built loyalty — people will pass up many other gas stations to visit Buc-ee’s — and connects with people emotionally. “I can’t believe people want to wear Buc-ee’s t-shirts, but they do,” he said.
He said the brand has created a unique ambiance that separates it from competitors like 7-Eleven and QuikTrip.
“The thing about Buc-ee’s is there’s nothing overly sophisticated about it,” Orosy said. “It just really excels at what it does. They’re not as numerous, obviously, as some of the other smaller formats that are easier to build and a little easier to put in, but it’s certainly one that draws an awful lot of people, and people will stay and hang out for a little while.”