LAKE JACKSON, Texas – In Texas, even the roadside attractions are legendary; (“world’s largest working fire hydrant,” in Beaumont; “world’s biggest horseshoe,” in Marfa). But for a legion of Texans roaming the state’s highways, the most welcome sight is a Buc-ee’s, an “oasis of the interstate” offering clean bathrooms, gas pumps galore, and a sprawling convenience store stuffed with snacks, belt buckles, toys, T-shirts, and whimsical wares adorned with the brand’s mascot — a buck-toothed beaver in a red cap.
Founded here in 1982 by Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, Buc-ee’s has been extending its range beyond Texas, including stores opening this month in Mississippi and Virginia. It now has 52 travel centers, mostly in Texas but also in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri and Colorado.
Local news reports on the grand opening of Buc-ee’s first Mississippi location, in the Gulf Coast town of Pass Christian, described a parking lot overflowing with “beaver-crazed superfans” from as far away as California, lending a “backyard barbecue vibe” to the event.
“I’m a bit of a fan girl,” customer Jas Key-Wade told nola.com, relating how she awoke at 1 a.m. to line up outside the entrance by 4 a.m. “I’ve been to seven Buc-ee’s stores over five states.”
Situated off I-10, the nation’s southernmost transcontinental highway, the 74,000-square-foot Buc-ee’s megastore has 120 fuel pumps and 24 charging stations for electric vehicles. “It’s the Walmart of gas stations,” Kali Husband, 35, told The New York Times, which dispatched its Atlanta bureau chief to cover the grand opening in Pass Christian.
The company said the Mississippi location also has all the Buc-ee’s classics, including Texas barbeque, homemade fudge, jerky, kolaches, pastries and caramel-coated corn puffs called “beaver nuggets.” The store is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Overnight, the new store in Pass Christian became the region’s largest private employer, bringing more than 200 jobs to the surrounding Harrison County area. Hourly pay starts at $18, with a 6% matching 401(k) and three weeks of paid vacation. “Harrison County is a vibrant community with five thriving cities and stunning beaches. It is perfectly situated along I-10 between our Texas and Alabama stores, and we can’t wait to be the best place to stop on the Mississippi Coast,” said Stan Beard, director of real estate and development at Buc-ee’s. Bill Lavers of the Harrison County Development Commission estimates the store will contribute between $50 million and $60 million a year in sales tax revenue.
As often as not, motorists pull into a Buc-ee’s primarily to refuel and refresh. Its famously clean restrooms – some with long rows of stalls with green and red lights over each indicating which are free – have long played a central role in Buc-ee’s humorous marketing campaigns, with roadside billboards that proclaim, “Restrooms That Make Mom Smile,” “Don’t Worry, P Happy,” and “Restrooms So Clean We Leave Mints in the Urinals.”
Restrooms are the most heavily trafficked areas at the stores and can get 15,000 visits a day. Visitors encounter an art gallery at the entrance of each bathroom area, where photographs and paintings fan out from the entryway and hang along the hallways that separate the men’s and women’s sides. All the pieces are for sale, and all have been curated by Colleen Booth, category manager for home décor at Buc-ee’s. “I curate art that I think is going to speak to men and art that I think is going to speak to women,” Booth told Texas Monthly, which ran a 1,600-word feature on the chain’s bathroom galleries in its May issue.
Buc-ee’s said its newest travel center, opening June 30 in Virginia’s Rockingham County, is the chain’s most northeast location and will introduce the megastore to a new customer base.
The store is situated off I-81 near Harrisonburg, about 2 ¼ hours by car from Washington, D.C. At 74,000 square feet, the center will be about 1.5 times bigger than a football field, provide parking for 600 vehicles, and have 120 fuel pumps and 20 EV charging stations, the county said in a social media post heralding the retailer’s arrival.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin took to social media last year to extol the start of work at the site. “Today’s groundbreaking represents 200 jobs and an investment of more than $60 million in Rockingham County,” Youngkin wrote. “I look forward to stopping by for some Beaver Nuggets soon!”
