MARK BRODIE: There was a major happening in Goodyear earlier this week when Buc-ee’s opened its first Arizona store. Buc-ee’s is a gas station and convenience store, but for many people, it’s more than that, as evidenced by the lines of fans who camped out just to be among the first to get in on Monday’s opening day.
With me now to help explain why Buc-ee’s has become such a phenomenon is Eric Benson, senior writer with Texas Monthly. Eric, good morning.
ERIC BENSON: Good morning.
MARK BRODIE: So for those of us who have not been there and haven’t, in Phoenix, at least, braved the crowds yet, can you sort of describe what Buc-ee’s actually is?
ERIC BENSON: Buc-ee’s is the most supersized gas station that you could ever imagine. It’s 10 — you know, every Buc-ee’s that that they build now, these large travel centers, they’re tens of thousands of square feet, over I think all of them would be over 50,000 square feet.
And so they have all of the gas station snacks that you could ever want, many of them Buc-ee’s branded. You can get a full lunch there, you can get a full breakfast there. There’s a huge portion of the store that’s for Buc-ee’s merchandise that I see all over the country wherever I go visit. And, you know, dozens and dozens of gas pumps, hundreds of parking spaces. And they are very proud of their bathrooms, as well.
MARK BRODIE: Yeah, I’ve heard these are some of the cleanest bathrooms you’re going to find. Is that really true?
ERIC BENSON: They they clean them constantly. They are always being cleaned. So, I do — I will say gas station bathrooms can be inconsistent, at best. ... And I have, I have never been to into a stall of a Buc-ee’s that has not been clean.
MARK BRODIE: So it sounds like this is, of course, a Texas-based company, so it’s sort of taking its "everything's bigger in Texas" motto to other places, now including Goodyear, it sounds like.
ERIC BENSON: Truly, they’ve they’ve had a massive expansion over the last, seven years, I believe is when they opened their first store outside of Texas.
MARK BRODIE: And is it true that the the person who started Buc-ee’s, the when the very first one opened in Texas, was kind of hopeful that this might turn into something a little bit bigger than just ... one single gas station and store? It seems like it’s really just become a thing, a huge thing.
ERIC BENSON: It has become a thing, but, but over a really long period of time. You know, the first Buc-ee’s store was over, the the founder of the first Buc-ee’s store is a guy named "Beaver" Aplin, who’s still the the CEO and the the co-owner of it. And he opened the first Buc-ee’s in his hometown, Lake Jackson, Texas, which is on the Gulf Coast, in 1982.
And so it’s been, you know, over these last, what, we’re talking, you know, 44 years, it’s been a, it’s been a slow build. You know, the first Buc-ee’s was, was 3,000 square feet instead of 2,400 square feet, which is the the industry standard. So it was a little bigger and a little nicer than your average gas station convenience store, but it wasn’t anything like the ones that they’re building now.
MARK BRODIE: Yeah, it sounds like it. So why is it that people seem to love this place so much? Why is it that you see merchandise all over the place from there wherever you go?
ERIC BENSON: Well, I think that they got a good logo and they got a good mascot as part of it. There’s Buc-ee Beaver, you know, and the the nickname, the long kind of boyhood nickname of the of the founder is "Beaver." His, his name is Arch Aplin III, I believe, but he was always "Beaver." And so they have this great logo, which, you know, looks great on a shirt. So that was smart.
And then, it's just one of those brands that for whatever reason has a, has a kind of following beyond, anything having to do with it. It’s, it’s something people have a kind of, almost emotional attachment to. Maybe it’s the size of it, maybe it’s the logo, maybe it’s the fact that the food is is good and they have fun food options.
But it’s it’s a place that I think for a pretty drab experience, which is stopping on the side of the road to get gas and get some, you know, snacks .. they, they make it, they, they kind of Disney-ify it a little bit, and people like that.
MARK BRODIE: Well, and it seems as though the company kind of leans into it, right? Like they seem prepared for people in the West Valley here of Phoenix to be camping out and, you know, lines of cars for miles to get in on their first day.
ERIC BENSON: Yeah, well, they’ve had experience with it now. You know, I think as the store expanded and, and got into, they started to build these big travel centers, you know, the opening of each one became a bit of a new event, a big event.
And as they’ve come to new places, expanded beyond Texas into the Southeast and now to Arizona, you know, people hear about it and want to see it. I, you know, I’d liken it to something like In-N-Out Burger. You know, when they open a new In-N-Out Burger, it’s a big deal. People line up ... so it’s this regional store that is kind of a legend, and when it comes to your neighborhood, I think there are, you know, there are a lot of people who want to get there first.
MARK BRODIE: Is there kind of a scarcity argument, too, here? Like, this is the first Buc-ee’s in Arizona, and for people who are familiar with it or maybe have heard of it or maybe have seen the the beaver logo on a T-shirt somewhere ... they don’t have other opportunities nearby to go, so this opens, it’s a big event, let’s just go check it out.
ERIC BENSON: Absolutely. I would imagine when for the eighth opening of a travel center in the Phoenix area, there will not be the same line. ... But believe me ... I think they’d love to open eight, right, you know.
MARK BRODIE: Yeah, well, I mean, are there are there plans to just keep expanding? You mention it’s been, you know, four decades since the first one, and, you know, this is the first one in Arizona. Which is, of course, not that far from Texas, relatively speaking. Are there plans to keep opening more and more of these?
ERIC BENSON: I don’t know. I would imagine, yes. So I was in — ... I wrote a long story on Buc-ee’s in 2019, and at the time there were 14 travel centers in Texas, there were 34 stores overall, and they had just opened a store in Alabama and it had a big line and all of that.
But when I went to Beaver’s office, he had a map of the United States on his wall, and he had all these little pins in the map, and it looked it looked like a map of like battles in the Civil War because it was all in the Southeast and it was all there were all these kind of little little pinpricks all around Atlanta. And, you know, every major highway going out from Atlanta to another major city had a little pin in, you know, kind of equidistant between Atlanta and these other cities.
And I said, "What what is this? It looks like an invasion." He said, "Yeah, kind of does look like an invasion." And so they had plans even when they didn’t have properties then, they had plans to really put Buc-ee’s between these kind of between major American cities, so when you were driving, there’d be one smack dab in the middle right when you wanted to stop. I don’t believe there was one anywhere near Arizona in 2019 when I visited, but they’ve been successful with their expansion, and so I don’t see why they would stop.
MARK BRODIE: Yeah. OK, so you mentioned that the food is pretty good. I assume it’s not just like chips and, you know, the kinds of snacks, prepackaged snacks you would, you know, you would get at any convenience store.
ERIC BENSON: Oh, very I mean, they, yeah, yes. It is a, it’s a full kind of restaurant, it’s all counter service, there’s no, there’s no weight service, but there’s a, there’s a head chef at a Buc-ee’s. There’s a big kitchen, they are, you know, they’re cooking a lot. And so you have a kind of, there’ll be these islands out in the middle of this massive store where at lunchtime, now I think it varies depending on stores, but the ones I’m familiar with in Texas, there’s a big barbecue area, and they’ll at lunch, you can just grab and go, brisket sandwich, pulled pork sandwich, you know, that sausage sandwich, that kind of thing.
There’s a counter where you can go up and order other kinds of food, and it all, you know, it all comes out very quick ... like a big national fast food chain, they’re always introducing new menu items, and I was there when some of those items were being kind of showcased for "Beaver" and he was selecting, "Oh, are we going to do the this kind of you know, yogurt cup, what what kind of lid are we going to use, and bring these out to, to all of our stores."
So it’s very, very intentionally done, and there’s, you know, all these is not a franchise operation. All these stores are owned by the company. Right. And there’s a lot of consistency across the brand.
MARK BRODIE: Interesting. All right, that is Eric Benson, senior writer with Texas Monthly. Eric, thanks so much.
ERIC BENSON: Thanks, thanks for having me.
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