Everyone loves Buc-ee’s.
And yes, in all transparency, when I see that familiar beaver face on a billboard I will hold going to the bathroom for 100 miles to get to those Beaver Nuggets and the world’s best vanilla pudding in a cup just a few minutes sooner. But why is the iconic gas station/convenience story/eatery/basically anything you want in one place so popular?
A group of economic geography students at TCU recently looked into that subject. In fact, they broke down the popularity of three groups: eater-tainment restaurants, HEB grocery stores and Buc-ees. “I gave the students several options and they selected the ones they were most interested in researching. The topics were things that I personally think are interesting within the business geography world at the moment, and that I hope the students will find interest/passion for,” explained Professor Sean Crotty.
Eater-tainment restaurants such as Top Golf have certainly presented society with a viable option opposed to “regular” restaurants. As a golfer myself, I have enjoyed pounding a ball with a driver and stepping back to the table for a bite of chicken wings on numerous occasions.
And what family man hasn’t spent a Saturday afternoon in HEB enjoying samples and getting specials that make you feel like you just bought a $6 refrigerator at Walmart? “When a new HEB opens, the community seems to briefly lose its mind. People camp out to be the first in the door, the parking lots require police to direct traffic, that sort of thing,” Crotty said. “People will typically travel farther for a good grocery store than a basic convenience store, but there’s not another grocery chain in North America that elicits that sort of behavior.
“I like HEB products as much as anyone, but that sort of behavior is typically reserved for people getting tickets to a concert – back when you had to wait in line to get tickets – or maybe the release of a new style of Jordan’s.”
Then there’s Buc-ee’s Crotty said Buc-ee’s is fascinating for several reasons. From adults getting coffee with every kind of creamer imaginable to kids begging for all sorts of stuffed animals to folks buying T-shirts they probably would not anywhere else, Buc-ee’s has it all.
“Imagine someone who didn’t work for Exxon wearing an Exxon shirt – or buying a BP-branded boogie-board,” Crotty said. “There are other chains that people certainly might feel more positive about than an average gas station, but it’s nowhere near the Buc-ee’s level of brand affection.”
Gas stations are quite literally the standard example in economic geography textbooks for a thing that most people will NOT travel far for, Crotty noted. The need is usually urgent – get gas now or the car stops running – and the experience of getting gas is unremarkable at best, and a hassle at worst.
So people just go to the closest place where they are confident they’re not paying outrageously more than somewhere else. However, he said Buc-ee’s upends both of those assumptions.
“People organize road trips around stops at Buc-ee’s. So their need for gas might not actually be urgent,” he said.
And, like many of us, Crotty has spent more than his fair share of time at a Buc-ee’s, especially since they opened one in Melissa.
“That Buc-ee’s happens to be halfway between my house and my father-in-law’s home in Southeastern Oklahoma,” he said.
At that location, and every other he’s visited, Crotty said he’s always pleasantly amazed at the diversity of the clientele. “There’s something really uplifting about seeing people of every age, religion, race, ethnicity, etc. all unified in their need for a clean restroom and delicious snacks on a road trip,” he said with a chuckle. “My favorite book is ‘Travels with Charley’ by John Steinbeck and, like him, I view the road trip as a quintessentially American experience that everyone should have.”
Crotty said it’s not an accident that Buc-ee’s started in Texas. In fact, the very first location in Lake Jackson wasn’t far from my house when I was a sports editor at the Brazosport Facts and I often stopped there, not realizing I was partaking in history.
He noted the “Texas Triangle” (Houston, DFW, Austin/San Antonio) is one of the most densely traveled set of roadways in the United States. “
“Over 175,000 people travel daily between major Triangle metros. For example, 70,600 travel daily between Houston and DFW,” he said. “And every one of those drivers wants a clean bathroom about halfway between those cities. The next time you’re on a long road trip, consider how much you’d pay to avoid one of the stereotypically gross highway gas station restrooms.”
He added that part of Buc-ee’s appeal is they were the first company to take the needs of non-truck-drivers on road trips seriously – and they’ve clearly benefited as a result.
“It’s also a bizarrely American business. Where else could you fill up your car, get branded toys for your kids, stock up on drinks and snacks for the road, and buy a $5,000 offset smoker?” he said.
More about Buc-ees coming? Crotty said the study may be taken to greater lengths. For example, just how far do people drive to go to a Buc-ee’s?
“The students this Spring found that Buc-ee’s increasingly is locating on the outer margins of existing cities. Those areas are continuing to develop and a substantial portion of the customers in those locations may actually be people who live nearby, rather than people doing multi-hour road trips,” he said. “That’s an interesting development as the novelty of Buc-ee’s would likely diminish over time for those customers, so if those locations can’t also attract people on long road trips, their revenue could be more volatile than the first-wave locations.
“Of course, if these newer locations still get road trippers and can operate profitably from those customers alone, then the local customers are just increased revenue and profit with no risk of location failure.” He added that a case could be made that Buc-ee’s is transforming gas stations nationwide in terms of their design, amenities, etc. “I’d like to dig into more data to see if that change is quantifiably measurable,” he said.
