Aerial view of a Buc-ee’s store on June 12, 2024 in Luling, Texas. Based in Texas, Buc-ee’s convenience store and gas station has become the world’s largest convenience store with more than 100 gas stations and a 75,000-square-foot store.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
As the Fourth of July holiday approaches and Americans head to the beach, the mountains or anywhere in between, they’re likely to see something they wouldn’t have seen just a few years ago: a mega-gas station.
Over the past decade, gas stations have reinvented themselves by offering food products that can compete with many established snack-only chains. But now they’re doing something else: growing in size and attracting legions of fans along the way.
Buc-ee’s is a heavyweight in the growing gas station phenomenon with more than 50 locations in 13 states.
Sally McQuinn drove from her home near Roanoke, Virginia, to Dayton, Ohio, to celebrate the opening of the company’s first Ohio office. “I’m obviously a big Bucs fan,” McQuinn said, using a nickname familiar to my old friend. She added that she took a photo with the owner of the chain who attended the opening in Dayton.
On a recent summer evening at the Dayton Buc-ee’s, nearly all of the station’s 120 pumps were busy, but the real action was inside the store. There, the employees chant “Brisket on the Boooard” every time a fresh brisket hits the cutting station. And shoppers are snapping up brisket sandwiches, three-meat sandwiches and everything in between. The largest Buc-ee’s in Texas is over 75,000 square feet. By comparison, gas stations like Sheetz and Wawa typically have around 7,000 square feet. The low-cost Walmart occupies approximately 150,000 square feet.
“The traditional gas station is rapidly transforming from a transactional fuel stop to a sprawling, multi-faceted retail and travel destination. This evolution is driven primarily by paltry gasoline margins, forcing operators to use the fuel as a loss leader to attract customers to high-margin convenience stores and foodservice operations,” said Sudip Mazumder, senior vice president, North America retail industry leader at Publicis Sapient, a digital business transformation and marketing consultancy.
Other factors driving this growth include changing consumer expectations for cleaner, more convenient stops, the need to accommodate electric vehicles that require longer charging times, and the long-standing need to broadly serve professional truck drivers.
Gas stations have been growing in size and becoming one-stop travel destinations for some time now. But the arrival of Buc-ee’s has accelerated the trend and spawned copycats like Wally’s, which has three 50,000-square-foot locations in the Midwest and plans to expand. The Midwestern-inspired stores feature amenities such as a popcorn bar and a selection of jerky that rivals Buc-ee’s.
Intentionally or not, these stores tap into the nostalgia associated with traditional family road trips by providing stops that are more than just gas and questionable restrooms, says Tom Seng, a professor of professional practice at Texas Christian University, and with millions of Americans still spending their vacations on the road, the interstate system is the perfect place for them.
“These stores have become destinations in themselves for some people,” Seng said.
Local residents, he noted, could also use them as a de facto grocery store or gas station. “Having been to Buc-ee’s many times myself, I know there will be plenty of gas stations so I won’t have to wait long. The toilets will be clean and there will be a variety of food options,” said Seng, noting the barbecue and plenty of roasted nuts that create an enticing aroma as soon as you enter.
Corporations make much higher profits from selling food and gifts than from selling gasoline.
“Buc-ee’s does not advertise gas prices like its competitors, but it is more of a service to attract customers,” Seng said.
Grand opening of Dolly Parton’s Tennessean Travel Stop, an 18-acre complex that includes a dog park, theater, restaurant and bar, trucker showers and lounge.
Dolly’s Tourist Stop in Tennessee
And now there’s Dolly, where gas seems almost an afterthought – just 16 pumps on a 25,000-square-foot, 18-acre behemoth that includes a dog park, theater, restaurant and bar, trucker showers and a lounge. But look for more—and more—Dolly’s locations after last week’s grand opening of the first Dolly’s in Cornersville, Tennessee, which even included a mention of the establishment’s namesake, who made a light-hearted jab at Book-ee as she cut the ribbon.
“Our initial focus is on making the Cornersville flagship location the best it can be. The plan is to open stores across the country in a deliberate and measured manner,” said Gregory H. Sachs, partner at Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop. Sachs said Parton and her team were involved in every aspect of creating the stop.
Elizabeth LaFontaine, director of research at location analytics company Placer.ai, said the latest mega-deals are a natural evolution in the segment, outliving its own category name.
“The convenience store channel has in many ways surpassed its name and evolved into a full-service one-stop shop for consumers,” LaFontaine said. “As the lines between grocery stores, convenience stores (convenience stores) and quick-service restaurants blur, convenience chains have effectively changed the consumer experience, becoming must-visit destinations on a regular weekday or as a special stop on vacation,” LaFontaine said.
Placer.ai data shows that shoppers are spending more time in stores that specialize in prepared foods or unique offerings, with Buc-ee’s having the longest dwell time of any online grocery chain, roughly double the time spent at its closest competitor.
Average dwell time (minutes) at convenience store chains
- Beech: 20.8
- Wawa: 11.7
- Sheets: 11.7
- 7-Eleven: 9.8
- Circle K: 9.3
- Casey’s General Store: 8.7
- Cumberland Farms: 8.5
Source: Placer.ai
LaFontaine said the definition of the category has expanded with the emergence and popularity of different online store formats.
“Social media has played a key role in bringing regional offerings to the national stage, which in turn has pushed all networks to take a closer look at what resonates with consumers,” she said.
Growth comes with various growing pains.
As convenience store formats encroach on the territory of grocery stores and supermarkets in both size and selection, chains need to consider how to maximize their popularity without creating too much additional competition.
“Larger format chains such as Buc-ee’s have successfully added general merchandise and private label items that occupy about 50% of the sales floor, which are often as popular with shoppers as prepared foods. But that strategy may be limited by the online store model and isn’t necessarily indicative of how other chains plan to compete for consumers’ attention, LaFontaine said.
Buc-ee’s has been successful in getting customers to stay in its stores longer, something Dolly’s and Wally’s are trying to emulate. Dolly’s entertainment options will especially enhance the stickiness of your stay. For example, upcoming events feature a story time in the auditorium from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Marbu Brown, CEO and founder of consulting firm Customer Obsession Advantage, says success is more about zeitgeist than size. “They need Cabbage Patch to have that appeal so that people who are leaving feel like they have to have it. It’s the aspects of the Buc-ee’s experience that these competitors need to emulate, not size,” Brown said. “Buc-ee’s has been successful… people want to buy a T-shirt telling the world they were there,” Brown said.
There is a limitation on square meters.
“While these stores have the potential to become extremely large, physical expansion faces practical constraints related to land availability, zoning and operational complexity, suggesting that future growth may prioritize optimizing services and space rather than just square footage,” Mazumder said.
In fact, the gas station mega-store may be approaching its upper limit.
Because these stores are designed to serve interstate travelers, they are not located in major urban areas, but rather favor more rural areas along highways. “It benefits small towns connected to our interstate system. Buc-ee’s seems to be setting the standard at this point, but I don’t see stores growing larger than what they have now,” Seng said.
Dolly’s says its goal is to create a place that feels like home. “In general, bigger is not always better,” Sachs said. “So, there will be some maximum size at which the feeling of “home” will be lost. We haven’t figured out exactly what that size is yet,” he said.
In the end, Brown said, all the brisket, fudge, beef jerky and kitschy highway trinkets may not matter as much as one aspect of the experience that all chains must honor: “People love Buc-ee’s for the one thing that makes people stop more than anything else: clean bathrooms.”
“The idea is that impeccable conditions make people feel comfortable. If they are comfortable using the bathroom, they feel comfortable eating there and spending more money. If the bathrooms are dirty, we don’t eat here,” he said.
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