Buc-ee's

Co-Founders Don Wasek and Arch "Beaver" Aplin opened their first store as partners, which is still open as of 2020, in Lake Jackson, Texas, in 1982. Aplin formed the name Buc-ee's by combining his childhood nickname; the name of his Labrador Retriever, Buck; as well as the appeal of Ipana toothpaste's animated mascot, Bucky the beaver.[4][5] Aplin was born in Southeast Texas, with his father originating from, and grandparents residing in, Harrisonburg, Louisiana.[6]

Buc-ee's expanded and opened its first travel center in Luling, Texas, in 2001. Buc-ee's are large stores with fuel pumps that range from 80 to 120 fueling positions for gas and diesel (some stores include Ethanol Free and DEF) and a large selection of jerky, pastries, fresh sandwiches, tacos, Dippin' Dots, fudge and other items.

In 2012, Buc-ee's opened its largest travel center in New Braunfels, Texas, on Interstate 35. The New Braunfels location is the largest convenience store in the world at 68,000 square feet.[7] The store features 120 fueling positions, 83 toilets, 31 cash registers, 4 Icee machines, and 80 fountain dispensers. It also offers tubing and water gear for enjoying the nearby Guadalupe River.

The New Braunfels, Texas store was named the 2012 "Best Restroom in America" by Cintas.[8]

After significant expansion in the Greater Houston area and Central Texas, the first Buc-ee's in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex opened in Terrell, Texas, on June 22, 2015. The travel center is located three miles west of Tanger Outlets on Interstate 20.

In September 2015 it was announced that at least part of Buc-ee's corporate operations would move to office space at Pearland Town Center. The "partial headquarters" would house legal and human resources departments of the company. The space was to be ready by the early part of 2016,[9]

The second Buc-ee's in the Metroplex opened on May 23, 2016. The store is located in far northern Fort Worth, across the street from Texas Motor Speedway.[10] The third DFW location opened in Denton, Texas, on October 29, 2018.

Buc-ee's broke ground on another North Texas location in Melissa, Texas, on February 5, 2018. The store is located off New Davis Road and U.S. Highway 75. The store opened Apr 29, 2019.[11][12]

In June 2018, Buc-ee's approached landowners in Texarkana, Texas, with interest in acreage off Interstate 30 and State Line Ave., for a future store site. The company has the option to buy the property, but as of yet, has not exercised that option.[13][14]

In late 2018, Buc-ee's announced a deal with Tooshlights to put special indicator lights in bathrooms to alert customers to which stalls are occupied or not. This is similar to the indicator lights used at some parking facilities that tell drivers which parking spaces are available and which are not. The Katy and Temple Buc-ee's stores would be the first to get the special bathroom indicator lights.[15]

Expansion outside Texas

On March 8, 2016, Buc-ee's announced a possible first location outside of the state of Texas would be located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.[16] The location was expected to open in early 2017; however, on October 4, 2016, Buc-ee's announced that the plans for the Baton Rouge location had been terminated.[17][18]

On April 12, 2017, Buc-ee's announced that it would open their first convenience store/gas station outside of Texas in Daytona Beach, Florida, located on the north side of LPGA Boulevard across from Tanger Outlets, just east of Interstate 95 and immediately west of Stonewood Grill & Tavern (formerly Vince Carter's).[19] Construction began in summer 2018.[20] However, delays in the project pushed the construction date to sometime in 2021. Since the announcement of the Daytona Beach location, Buc-ee's also announced a new location to be built near St. Augustine, Florida.[21] The St. Augustine location is expected to open first in February 2021 and the Daytona location is expected to open in March or April of 2021.[22]

Inside of a Buc-ee's, Terrell, Texas

In January 2018, Buc-ee's broke ground on what became its first location outside of Texas, in Baldwin County, Alabama.[23]

And in June 2019, Buc-ee's broke ground on a second Alabama location, to be located along Interstate 20 in Leeds, not far from Barber Motorsports Park.[24][25]

Buc-ee's broke ground on its first store in Georgia in Warner Robins near the interchange of Interstate 75 and Russell Parkway on November 18, 2019. Buc-ee's chose Warner Robins as the location of its first Georgia store for its central location between Alabama and Florida, its fast population growth as well as the presence of Robins Air Force Base. The Warner Robins location opened on November 18, 2020, exactly one year to the date of ground breaking, and brought 200 jobs to the area.[26] Buc-ee's plans to open its second Georgia store in Calhoun near the interchange of Interstate 75 and Union Grove Road, approximately halfway between Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in August 2021, expecting to fill 175 jobs.[27]

Buc-ee's in Terrell, Texas

In recent years, during the company's rapidly growing success, Buc-ee's has filed numerous lawsuits against other convenience store chains, most of them based in Texas, for trademark and trade dress infringement.

In 2014, Buc-ee's filed a lawsuit against Texas based convenience store chain "Frio Beaver".[28] Frio Beaver, a company with a logo also depicting a beaver in a yellow circle with a black outline, was accused of copying the iconic Buc-ee's beaver head logo, which the company is widely known for in Texas.

In 2016, Buc-ee's sued "Choke Canyon BBQ", another Texas convenience store, for copyright infringement and trade dressing.[29] Choke Canyon uses a logo of a grinning alligator in the middle of a yellow circle, which Buc-ee's claims is an attempt by the chain to resemble the Buc-ee's logo. Choke Canyon is also calling their new stores "Bucky's".[30]

In 2017, Buc-ee's again filed a lawsuit for breaking an agreement, this time against a Nebraska-based convenience store chain known as "Bucky's".[31] The two companies had agreed to remain in their respective states and expand only to states where the other did not operate.

There was also a non-logo related lawsuit filed in 2013 against "Chicks", a convenience store located in Bryan, Texas, for trade dressing by allegedly copying Buc-ee's mega convenience store designs and layout.[32] The case was settled out of court.[28]

Buc-ee's also lost a Texas Employee Retention Agreement case on an appeal in 2017. A year after a trial court ordered a former employee to pay Buc-ee's close to $100,000 in damages and attorney's fees for breaching a "Retention Agreement," a Texas court of appeals reversed the decision and ordered that Buc-ee's take nothing on its claims against the former employee. The court reasoned that the contract violated Texas' employment-at-will doctrine. It could only be valid if it met the requirements of an actual non-compete agreement, but as this did not meet Texas requirement for non-compete, the contract was not enforceable.[33]

• "Buc-ee's in New Braunfels vying for best restrooms in America", KHOU.com, September 2, 2012.
• Miguel Bustillo, "Roadside Stopper: Can Something Be Too Big in Texas?", The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2012.
• Peter Carbonara, "How Two Texans Made Buc-ee's Convenience Stores A Phenomenon", Forbes, September 5, 2017.
• Priya Krishna, "Meet Me at Buc-ee's: The Best Rest Stop in America", Bon Appetit, September 19, 2016.
• Amy McCarthy, "How Buc-ee’s Became Texas’s Most Beloved Road Trip Destination", Eater, June 14, 2017.
• Hollis Johnson, Kate Taylor, "We visited a convenience-store chain with a cult following in Texas, and we were amazed by what we found", BusinessInsider.com, July 22, 2018.

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