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 Buc-ee's convenience stores history
#14113295
08/30/21 01:21 PM
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 3,527
crapyetr
OP
TFF Team Angler
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OP
TFF Team Angler
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 3,527 |
The insight that runs beneath the rise of Buc-ee's convenience stores is this: "You can get a lot of people to pull off the highway and spend money if you guarantee them an immaculate place in which to heed the call of nature."
As one Buc-ee's billboard proclaims, "Your Throne Awaits. Fabulous Restrooms--32 miles."
The quiet success of Buc-ee's, Forbes estimates that the privately held company had revenue last year of $275 million, is based on several shrewd decisions. Owners Arch Aplin III and Don Wasek have targeted an affluent market segment--they don't discount, and they don't allow commercial trucks at their gas pumps.
They have nurtured the cultlike following that has grown around their brand. They've fattened their margins with lots of private-label merchandise. And they've taken advantage of years of low interest rates to finance an expansion that is designed to make them a power across the Southeast.
While most Buc-ee's locations are the size of a typical convenience store (about 3,000 square feet), its "travel centers" are enormous.
The one off a highway interchange in Katy, half an hour west of Houston has more than 100 gas pumps and 52,000 square feet of retail space. It employs more than 200 people and features what may be the largest car wash in the world.
The main attraction, however, will be the toilets. The restrooms in Katy, like those in Buc-ee's other travel centers, were designed by Aplin himself.
The men's and women's rooms have spacious entryways decorated with Texas-themed maps and memorabilia. They have high ceilings and bright lighting, finished with sandstone-colored tiling.
The men's room will have 30 urinals and 12 toilets, the women's room 28 toilets. Each stall will have walls, not thin dividers, and a surprisingly heavy metal door. And they will be patrolled 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by uniformed employees whose only job is to keep them pristine.
From the bathrooms to the branded caps and T-shirts to the brass beaver near the entrance, a big Buc-ee's feels less like a convenience store than a Texas-themed amusement park. "They are becoming a destination," says Greg Lindenberg, the editor of CSP magazine, which covers the $550 billion convenience-store industry.
Jim Fisher, a Houston convenience-store consultant--Buc-ee's is a former client--says, "My granddaughter came down from Indianapolis to visit, and I asked her, 'Where do you want to go?' The first word out of her mouth was 'Buc-ee's'!"
And in a Bon Appétit magazine story proclaiming Buc-ee's "the best rest stop in America," Texas restaurateur and celebrity chef Tim Love said, "When a new Buc-ee's opens, it's like a new roller-coaster ride. You just want to go in and see it."
The first Buc-ee's opened in 1982. Aplin, 58, known universally as Beaver--a nickname bestowed by his mother--was fresh out of Texas A&M and working at his father's construction company. When Beaver opened a standard-issue, 3,000-square-foot convenience store in his hometown of Lake Jackson, he says, "I didn't have anything particular in mind."
Three years later, he teamed up with Wasek, who had his own convenience store in nearby Brazoria. Today they each own 50% of Buc-ee's Ltd., and they have clearly defined roles.
In 1985, Aplin and Wasek started adding locations across Texas. Their motto then, as now, was "Clean, friendly and in stock."
But Buc-ee's was just another convenience store until 2006, when they decided to expand a location to 17,000 square feet.
Aplin says there was no big idea at the time; the store had done well, and real estate in the area was cheap. Over time, however, Aplin and Wasek started to model new locations on truck stops. The idea was to imitate the size and volume but cater to passenger cars, luring drivers with gasoline and, of course, restrooms.
In 2012, they opened a 68,000-square-foot store on Interstate 35 near San Antonio.
Most convenience-store revenue comes from gas sales--60% of Buc-ee's revenue, for instance. Profit margins on gas, however, tend to be in the low single digits, while margins on things like Doritos and beer can be more than 30%.
To reach those restrooms, of course, customers have to walk past endless aisles of snack food and candy, refrigerator cases filled with beer and soda, self-serve drink and coffee stations, a big horseshoe-shaped "Texas Roundup" BBQ stand and glass counters containing more kinds of jerky and fudge than should exist.
Aplin has noticed that many customers leave their cars and go inside while gas is pumping, creating a line and backing up traffic at the pumps and he's also noticed bottlenecks inside his stores, specifically outside the restrooms. While men march right up to a stall to see if anybody's inside, women don't--sometimes causing a line to form in the entryway even when stalls are vacant.
"I haven't figured that out yet," he says, but he recently invested in the startup that is developing a system of signal lights that would go over each toilet door and be linked to a display in the entryway. Just another reason to check out the next new Buc-ee's. ~ Peter Carbonara
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: crapyetr]
#14113341
08/30/21 01:47 PM
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 955
Espy
Pro Angler
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Pro Angler
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 955 |
I remember going into my first buc-ees first thing I told my wife was when we get home I’m going to by some stock in the company because it’s a gold mine. That’s when I found out it was privately owned. Cheap gas clean restrooms and cheap ice is hard to beat.
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: crapyetr]
#14113392
08/30/21 02:16 PM
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 18,809
COFF
TFF Guru
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TFF Guru
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 18,809 |
I love buc-ees. Except for on Sundays. On Sunday it is like disneyland with the crowd of fat people wearing entirely too little clothing getting bbq sandwiches, buccee balls, fudge and diet cokes.
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: crapyetr]
#14113395
08/30/21 02:20 PM
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 30,074
Moto-Moto
TFF Guru
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TFF Guru
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 30,074 |
They need to make a few on 20 between FTW and Midland.
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: crapyetr]
#14113399
08/30/21 02:24 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 50,366
RATZ
Activity Coordinator
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Activity Coordinator
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 50,366 |
It's a great marketing plan for sure. WHen we were driving back from NY the other day we saw a sign in TN they were about to open a new one there. I think it will be just their 2nd store outside of Texas. I think there is one in Alabama.
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: Moto-Moto]
#14113400
08/30/21 02:24 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 50,366
RATZ
Activity Coordinator
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Activity Coordinator
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 50,366 |
one near Ranger and one near Big Spring would be nice.
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: RATZ]
#14113405
08/30/21 02:30 PM
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 68,418
Derek 🐝
Queen of Bees
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Queen of Bees
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 68,418 |
It's a great marketing plan for sure. WHen we were driving back from NY the other day we saw a sign in TN they were about to open a new one there. I think it will be just their 2nd store outside of Texas. I think there is one in Alabama. The one going in TN will be their largest one yet. Touting it as the worlds largest convenience store. I think New Braunfels.is the current largest one.
Ebolacane Researcher
CovidNado Chaser
McRib Pro Staff
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: Moto-Moto]
#14113439
08/30/21 02:51 PM
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Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 729
Lakhota
Pro Angler
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Pro Angler
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 729 |
They need to make a few on 20 between FTW and Midland. I agree and don’t understand why they haven’t gone West yet.
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: crapyetr]
#14113494
08/30/21 03:27 PM
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 9,814
Space
TFF Celebrity
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TFF Celebrity
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 9,814 |
I have been to the one in New Braunfels and the one in Katy both are nice and clean. I am not a big fan but if I need to stop I'll stop there.
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: crapyetr]
#14113508
08/30/21 03:40 PM
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,789
HookaToad
Extreme Angler
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Extreme Angler
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,789 |
I like the fact that you can always find an open gas stall that fits your truck and your boat without either sticking out into the parking lot blocking traffic (uhmmmm QT)
Good Fishing and God Bless
“I’d rather be a failure at something I enjoy than to be a success at something I hate”
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: crapyetr]
#14113545
08/30/21 04:03 PM
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Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 5,976
Bayou Burner
TFF Celebrity
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TFF Celebrity
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 5,976 |
I remember when they(Bucees) were small. I had a Aunt who live on the San Bernard and had to go through Brazoria to get there and we would always stop. That was back in the mid 80’s. The one in Texas City on I45S is really nice-Plenty of fishing tackle. I usually only go early in the mornings on the way to Galveston to fish sometimes, after 6:00 am it’s a madhouse.
"Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway."
John Wayne
ADHAERO VIRTUTI
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: RATZ]
#14113550
08/30/21 04:11 PM
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Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 5,071
Dogfish_Jones
TFF Celebrity
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TFF Celebrity
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 5,071 |
It's a great marketing plan for sure. WHen we were driving back from NY the other day we saw a sign in TN they were about to open a new one there. I think it will be just their 2nd store outside of Texas. I think there is one in Alabama. In Alabama it is in Leeds right down the street from the Bass Pro Shop off I-20, just east of Birmingham.
2020 Nitro Z20, Mercury 250xp 4 stroke
"Sometimes I have to remind myself that it is called Fishing and not catching"
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: crapyetr]
#14113571
08/30/21 04:23 PM
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Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 16,301
Sawhorse
TFF Guru
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TFF Guru
Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 16,301 |
Hard to believe but I’ve never been to one.
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: crapyetr]
#14113594
08/30/21 04:36 PM
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 34,587
cocodrie
TFF Guru
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TFF Guru
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 34,587 |
I like going to the gas stations right next to Buc-ee's because I know no one will be in there.
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Re: Buc-ee's convenience stores history
[Re: cocodrie]
#14113611
08/30/21 04:50 PM
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 42,724
CCTX
mapquest
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mapquest
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 42,724 |
I like going to the gas stations right next to Buc-ee's because I know no one will be in there. Solid strategy. I like Bucees, but at times, they can be overrun by Karens and their little yutes.
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