SPRINGFIELD, MO—I’ve lived in Texas for 20 years now, and I remember when Buc-ee’s was just a gas station I couldn’t pronounce.
I’ve been to the one in Giddings (a plain old gas station) on road trips between Austin and Houston a couple of times and honestly wouldn’t have looked twice at the company except for the hard-to-fathom name pronunciation.
Somewhere along the line, the company decided to embrace the “Everything is bigger in Texas” mantra and launch itself as the biggest gas station with the cleanest bathrooms and the best snacks.
Explaining it to non-Texans was tough. “Like Wawa or QuikTrip?” “No, not even close.”
But now, other states are getting their chance. In 2019, Buc-ee’s embarked on a multistate expansion, and has since expanded its footprint to 50 stores across Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, and Colorado, with stores in progress in Virginia and Mississippi.
The lore surrounding Buc-ee’s involves mostly junk food but I want to draw your attention to an unsung hero of the experience: fresh produce.
I usually pack up a cooler of fresh produce snacks for road trips including things like carrot sticks, broccoli, cucumbers, bell peppers, celery, apples, cherries, and whatever else piques my fancy on a road trip.
And then I unleash my kids on the banana pudding, beef jerky, and breakfast tacos at Buc-ee’s.
We recently stopped at one of the newest stores on the way home to Texas from the Ozarks. At about 8 a.m., we were all about beef jerky and tacos. I hadn’t had time to pack up our own snacks before leaving for home, so we were relying completely on road food for this trip.
By 6 p.m., after a stop at the McDonald’s in Sanger, TX, offered nothing but burgers and fries, we were ready for something fresh.
That’s when I remembered that Buc-ee’s has amazing salads, in addition to the cups of cantaloupe, grapes, veggies, pineapple, and more.
We hit up our second of the day in Hillsboro, TX, — another new location on the map — before powering the last two hours home.
Seeing the crowds at two different brand-new stores, in two very different areas, in one day was a really interesting dichotomy.
In Springfield, helpful employees were ready to help us navigate what can be a bit of an overwhelming stop.
In Hillsboro, the store was packed full, but everyone was on a mission.
Both stores were very similar, leaning heavily on the out-loud Texas of it all. I have no doubt Buc-ee’s will have a lot of success outside the Lone Star State.
