Buc-ees - The Costco of Gas Stations

Buc-ee’s is an unconventional convenience store that, as of right now, is not nearly as well-known as some of the country's leading chains like 7 Eleven or Circle K. Both 7 Eleven & Circle K have thousands of locations in the United States, but Buc-ee’s only has around 50. It's one of those companies that has built a cult like following in Texas, much like H-E-B or WHATABURGER, but hasn't really been able to expand beyond that just yet anyway. These are potentially exciting times for Buc-ee’s because in 2019, after 37 years of operating, they opened their first location outside of Texas. That one was in Alabama, but they quickly followed it up by opening new ones in Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee. Looking forward, documents have been submitted to open more of them as far north as Wisconsin, and construction has already started on a massive project in Colorado.
It is such a massive project because Bucky's locations are known for being exceptionally large. Some have called them the Sam’s Club or Costco’s of convenience stores. When you go to an average convenience store like 7 Eleven or Circle K, you can expect them to be around 3000 square feet. But Buc-ee’s has built multiple locations to be above 50,000. For example, in 2012, they set a world record by opening the largest ever convenience store. I'm talking about 18 acres of land, including 60 fuel pumps and a thousand parking spaces. Also in 2017, they set another record by opening the world's longest car wash. It takes about five minutes just to get through it, so you better believe your car is going to be clean after that. I know it almost sounds absurd. I'm going to go deeper into all of it as I talk about why Buc-ee’s has been so successful and why they may have the potential to become a nationally recognized chain of convenience stores.
First off, I want to talk about their founder and longtime owner, Arch Aplin III, because he has been the main person associated with the company since the beginning and seemingly such a perfect person for it. When he was a kid, his grandparents owned a general store in Louisiana. He would spend a lot of time there, help out in various ways, while taking a particularly close interest in how the business operated. His father owned a construction company, so Arch actually earned a degree from Texas A&M in construction sciences, went on to work for that company only for a few months before setting out to start his own company. In 1982 for $52,000, he bought a piece of land at an intersection in Lake Jackson, Texas. The issue was that he did not have $52,000 in his account at the time, so he had to hurry to secure a bank loan to cover the amount. He then built a mostly typical looking gas station/convenience store on that land, and that was the first ever Buc-ee’s, much different than we would expect to see today.