Category: Design

Welcome to Buc-ee’s, the world’s most magical gas station—a place where travelers from every corner of this great country find comfort, refreshment, and a moment of cheer along their journey. Here, the spirit of the open road lives on—in the laughter of families, the sparkle of spotless tile, and the scent of freshly carved hot brisket and homemade fudge. It’s dedicated to wanderers and wayfarers who believe that even the briefest stop can be touched by joy.

We visited our first Buc-ee’s on our summer trip to Knoxville on I-81 to see my Abigai’s parents. We pulled into the Mount Crawford location, Virginia’s first Buc-ee’s. The first thing we noticed was its sheer size. This place is massive—120 gas pumps and 74,000 square feet of retail space, making it one of the largest convenience stores in the world. Despite over 600 parking spots, finding a space still took a minute. It was packed.

When we opened the door, we were hit with a low roar—the sound of hundreds of people crammed into the store. It felt like arriving at Magic Kingdom for rope drop, except this was 1 PM on an average Sunday. And the smell: sticky-sweet Texas BBQ sauce hanging in the air, promised something far better than typical gas station fare.

After hours in the car, we made a beeline for the bathrooms. Even with the crowds, there was no line. The bathrooms are enormous, with 50+ individual stalls. They’re legendary for their cleanliness, winning Cintas’s “America’s Best Public Restroom” award. As founder Arch “Beaver” Aplin said, “You can build it out of gold…but if you don’t clean it, at the end of the day, you end up with dirty gold.”

Then there’s the food. I like to call it rest stop gourmet. We grabbed soft, melt-in-your-mouth brisket sandwiches. We also picked up homemade fudge and a few bags of beef jerky (from two dozen varieties) from the jerky wall, plus Buc-ee’s signature snack: Beaver Nuggets, caramel-covered puffed corn.

But Buc-ee’s is so much more than the food and bathrooms. The brand is half the magic. Long before you see the store, Buc-ee’s billboards appear miles out—each one mixing dad humor with road-trip poetry: “Top Two Reasons to Stop at Buc-ee’s: #1 and #2” or “You Can Hold It… 262 Miles More!” By the time you pull off the highway, you already feel like part of the club.

Inside, that cartoon beaver grins from every shelf, turning ordinary merchandise into part of the experience. My teenage son bought a Buc-ee’s onesie to wear for Halloween—part joke, part personal brand building. That’s the power of Buc-ee’s: they’ve made a gas station mascot cool enough that a teenager will willingly wear it as a costume.

The souvenir shop rivals any tourist destination—like Cracker Barrel on steroids, selling Buc-ee’s branded and Texas-themed merchandise. We picked up tote bags and even a Buc-ee’s outdoor sofa. We wanted to continue the Buc-ee’s experience even after we went home.

But where did this magical place called Buc-ee’s come from? Founded in 1982 by Arch “Beaver” Aplin III (his nickname stemming from childhood and a quirky toothpaste-cartoon beaver mascot) and partner Don Wasek, Buc-ee’s began as a simple convenience store and gas station in Lake Jackson, Texas, with a goal of providing “clean, friendly, in-stock” service that would stand out. In 2003, it opened its first true “super-travel center” in Luling, Texas. By 2012, it had erected a 68,000-square-foot store in New Braunfels, widely deemed “the world’s largest convenience store” at the time.

After dominating Texas for decades, Buc-ee’s began expanding beyond its home state around 2018–19, starting with Alabama, then Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee.

Even with all of this brand equity, Buc-ee’s doesn’t have its own online store. That doesn’t mean you can’t buy Buc-ee’s merch online, though. In true Texas-sized entrepreneurial fashion, one fan, Chris Koerner, saw the gap and filled it. When he realized there was no way to order Beaver Nuggets or a Buc-ee’s hoodie from home, he loaded six shopping carts with every Buc-ee’s branded product he could find—650 items in all—and built an unofficial resale site called Texas Snax. Today, his company ships everything from jerky to plush beavers across the country, doing hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales each month. Buc-ee’s, for its part, doesn’t object—as long as he makes it clear that he’s independent from the company.

What Buc-ee’s understands—and what so many businesses miss—is that people don’t just want a transaction. They want an experience, even in the most unlikely places. Especially in unlikely places. In the middle of a long highway stretch, when you’re tired and restless, Buc-ee’s transforms a mundane pit stop into something worth talking about, worth remembering, worth taking home. That’s not just good business. That’s magic.

Note: The New York Times wrote a nice piece on Buc-ee’s earlier in the summer Buc-ee’s, a Pit Stop to Refuel Cars, Stomachs and Souls, Spreads Beyond Texas.