Buc-ees….tell me about it. Worth a stop? Worth a drive to one? Worth a flight to one? (1 Viewer)

[In The Zone]

Never heard of it, but sounds like a shrine to many of the things that have made this country great, and awful at the same time.

I have been to buc-ees more than almost any poster in this thread. Every time I go fishing or to the beach I stop at buc-ees. I have eaten at buc-ees hundreds of times over the 12 years I have lived here and have stopped at buc-ees at least 3 times that amount.

For years I was probably the most pro buc-ees person that you could find, my offshore fishing buddies were disappointed when I would choose buc-ees as our late dinner instead of anywhere else(they should have owned the boat/truck if they want to choose where to eat).

My buc-ees store has the exact fishing equipment needed to fish salt water in south east Texas. You go to Walmart, and half of the sport section or more is useless. The store I visit optimizes it's space by someone who understands what the customers want from a fishing/beach destination convenience store. The buc-ees that I go to do not resemble the buc-ees that most posters in this thread reference.

The owners managed to customize each store to the specific scenario that the consumer wants most. If you go to a buc-ees in West Texas/hill country you will find corn feeders and smokers. However since people on road trips want clean bathrooms the mega-buc-ees you see popping up all over the country almost always feature an employee in the bathroom ready to clean at all times.

Absolute geniuses that run the company, my one real complaint is that the selection of food has gotten worse as they standardized their stores. My favorite foods they used to offer have not been available for years.

The Buc-ee's in Florence, SC has deer feeders and smokers also as well as a firewood holder.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

sounds like a one time thing. my awesome wife and daughter would rather just pee on the side of the road than hover over some nasty rest stop/fast food/gas station bathroom. if i come across one of these things, i'll check it out. but it sounds like they're a midwest and east thing.

Please tell me they aren't really "hovering" over a toilet seat. That leads to bladder infections and other nastiness.

And the bathrooms are clean there. Probably cleaner than yours.

For the occasional Pee at a nasty toilet, they hover. Pretty sure theyre gonna be ok. Neither are long haul truckers or doing the cannonball run regularly.

 

[AAABatteries]

Are clean bathrooms really that important?

Yes

Surprised to see you post this - don‘t you camp/backpack?

Reminds me of one of my good friends. When asked what he looked for in a romantic partner, he had only two requirements. She must:

1. Return his calls.
2. Be willing to sh!t in the woods.

The first is clearly a joke, but #2 is a pretty good judge of character imo.

I do but different settings/scenarios. Disgusting bathrooms are much worse than going in the woods, IMO. And it’s not even a discussion with the wife and kids.

 

[nirad3]

sounds like a one time thing. my awesome wife and daughter would rather just pee on the side of the road than hover over some nasty rest stop/fast food/gas station bathroom. if i come across one of these things, i'll check it out. but it sounds like they're a midwest and east thing.

I think they started in Texas, but sounds like they've expanded quite a bit.

 

[PIK95]

I never understood exactly what you get them for. A sort of reward for a big play. Some guys have the whole helmet covered. If you get a sack and recover the fumble, do you get two? I like how some other schools (besides Ohio State) have them also. The Florida state ones were always cool imo.

 

[Psychopav]

I never understood exactly what you get them for. A sort of reward for a big play. Some guys have the whole helmet covered. If you get a sack and recover the fumble, do you get two? I like how some other schools have them also. The Florida state ones were always cool imo.

Makes sense. Tell me more...

 

[Terminalxylem]

Are clean bathrooms really that important?

Yes

Surprised to see you post this - don‘t you camp/backpack?

Reminds me of one of my good friends. When asked what he looked for in a romantic partner, he had only two requirements. She must:

1. Return his calls.
2. Be willing to sh!t in the woods.

The first is clearly a joke, but #2 is a pretty good judge of character imo.

I do but different settings/scenarios. Disgusting bathrooms are much worse than going in the woods, IMO. And it’s not even a discussion with the wife and kids.

I guess I‘ve been lucky, as I’ve never encountered an unusable restroom. There is always a way to mitigate the badness.

Or crowds register higher than excrement/lack of tp/glory holes on my PTSD scale.

Good point about the family, though it kinda validates my friends feelings about choosing a partner.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Are clean bathrooms really that important?

Yes

Surprised to see you post this - don‘t you camp/backpack?

Reminds me of one of my good friends. When asked what he looked for in a romantic partner, he had only two requirements. She must:

1. Return his calls.
2. Be willing to sh!t in the woods.

The first is clearly a joke, but #2 is a pretty good judge of character imo.

I do but different settings/scenarios. Disgusting bathrooms are much worse than going in the woods, IMO. And it’s not even a discussion with the wife and kids.

I guess I‘ve been lucky, as I’ve never encountered an unusable restroom. There is always a way to mitigate the badness.

Or crowds register higher than excrement/lack of tp/glory holes on my PTSD scale.

Good point about the family, though it kinda validates my friends feelings about choosing a partner.

Yep.

 

[MTskibum]

Well, I’ll be in Kentucky in a few weeks…looks like there’s one in Richmond, about an hour away from my destination (Red River Gorge). If I ever need a clean bathroom, highly processed calories, or whatever the locals enjoy (bourbon?), I’ll make a side trip.

You can skip the mega-buc-ee's, they suck.

The good buc-ee's are in the houston area.

 

[Major]

I never understood exactly what you get them for. A sort of reward for a big play. Some guys have the whole helmet covered. If you get a sack and recover the fumble, do you get two? I like how some other schools have them also. The Florida state ones were always cool imo.

Makes sense. Tell me more...

I'm not sure of the topic but pretty sure Gates is the answer

 

[Dezbelief]

Cheap ice is another big benefit if you travel, camp, hunt, or fish. .99 for a 10 pound bag. I got so used to it that I thought that's what ice normally sells for. Then I moved to Florida and got shocked by the 8 pound bag for 2.99 BS damn near everywhere.

Many McDonald's sell 8-10 lb bags of ice for $1-$2 depending on the store.

Sonic

 

[nirad3]

Not to derail the thread with Ice Chat, but I believe Starbucks will give you a crapton of ice for free if you have something to put it in.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

Drove by one for the first time today but didn’t need to stop. Didn’t look that exciting.

 

[Terminalxylem]

Are clean bathrooms really that important?

Yes

Surprised to see you post this - don‘t you camp/backpack?

Reminds me of one of my good friends. When asked what he looked for in a romantic partner, he had only two requirements. She must:

1. Return his calls.
2. Be willing to sh!t in the woods.

The first is clearly a joke, but #2 is a pretty good judge of character imo.

I do but different settings/scenarios. Disgusting bathrooms are much worse than going in the woods, IMO. And it’s not even a discussion with the wife and kids.

I guess I‘ve been lucky, as I’ve never encountered an unusable restroom. There is always a way to mitigate the badness.

Or crowds register higher than excrement/lack of tp/glory holes on my PTSD scale.

Good point about the family, though it kinda validates my friends feelings about choosing a partner.

Yep.

It’s all about attitude/expectations ; some people see puddles of yellow liquid on a toilet seat and think ewww, urine. I see lemonade.

 

[AAABatteries]

Good point about the family, though it kinda validates my friends feelings about choosing a partner.

Finding a partner is one of the most important things a person will ever do (for most folks). Your buddies‘ romantic partner requirements are odd but if it works for him great.

 

[Spanky267]

Never heard of it, but sounds like a shrine to many of the things that have made this country great, and awful at the same time.

I have been to buc-ees more than almost any poster in this thread. Every time I go fishing or to the beach I stop at buc-ees. I have eaten at buc-ees hundreds of times over the 12 years I have lived here and have stopped at buc-ees at least 3 times that amount.

For years I was probably the most pro buc-ees person that you could find, my offshore fishing buddies were disappointed when I would choose buc-ees as our late dinner instead of anywhere else(they should have owned the boat/truck if they want to choose where to eat).

My buc-ees store has the exact fishing equipment needed to fish salt water in south east Texas. You go to Walmart, and half of the sport section or more is useless. The store I visit optimizes it's space by someone who understands what the customers want from a fishing/beach destination convenience store. The buc-ees that I go to do not resemble the buc-ees that most posters in this thread reference.

The owners managed to customize each store to the specific scenario that the consumer wants most. If you go to a buc-ees in West Texas/hill country you will find corn feeders and smokers. However since people on road trips want clean bathrooms the mega-buc-ees you see popping up all over the country almost always feature an employee in the bathroom ready to clean at all times.

Absolute geniuses that run the company, my one real complaint is that the selection of food has gotten worse as they standardized their stores. My favorite foods they used to offer have not been available for years.

My major complaint is that they stopped serving the Pepperjack Kolache.

 

[3C's]

We're #1! Maybe...

At more than 75,000 square feet, the new Buc-ee’s location will be among the company’s largest. While the Buc-ee’s website says that its New Braunfels, Texas, location is the largest convenience store in the world at 66,335 square feet, that site is being dethroned by a 74,000-square-foot Buc-ee’s under construction in Sevierville, Tennessee, according to CBS affiliate television station WVLT. It appears the New Kent location could top the Tennessee Buc-ee’s.

A convenience store that's nearly half the size of a super Walmart. Craziness.

 

[Peak]

Cheap ice is another big benefit if you travel, camp, hunt, or fish. .99 for a 10 pound bag. I got so used to it that I thought that's what ice normally sells for. Then I moved to Florida and got shocked by the 8 pound bag for 2.99 BS damn near everywhere.

Many McDonald's sell 8-10 lb bags of ice for $1-$2 depending on the store.

Sonic

Chik-fil-a

 

[Pip's Invitation]

We're #1! Maybe...

At more than 75,000 square feet, the new Buc-ee’s location will be among the company’s largest. While the Buc-ee’s website says that its New Braunfels, Texas, location is the largest convenience store in the world at 66,335 square feet, that site is being dethroned by a 74,000-square-foot Buc-ee’s under construction in Sevierville, Tennessee, according to CBS affiliate television station WVLT. It appears the New Kent location could top the Tennessee Buc-ee’s.

A convenience store that's nearly half the size of a super Walmart. Craziness.

At what point does it become too big to be "convenient"?

 

[3C's]

We're #1! Maybe...

At more than 75,000 square feet, the new Buc-ee’s location will be among the company’s largest. While the Buc-ee’s website says that its New Braunfels, Texas, location is the largest convenience store in the world at 66,335 square feet, that site is being dethroned by a 74,000-square-foot Buc-ee’s under construction in Sevierville, Tennessee, according to CBS affiliate television station WVLT. It appears the New Kent location could top the Tennessee Buc-ee’s.

A convenience store that's nearly half the size of a super Walmart. Craziness.

At what point does it become too big to be "convenient"?

I'd say some of the posts have pointed to it (some of them) not being convenient for sure. 0 chance I wait in line to find a parking spot and spend 30 minutes going round the place. At some point I'll stop in though to check it out after the buzz dies down. Assuming it does.

 

[Instinctive]

Buc-ee's is outstanding. It does everything you need it to do and does it well. We stop there every time we go to or from OKC and every time we go to or from Austin/Houston/San Antonio.

Gas is always well-priced and there's always a pump. There's always a bathroom clean and available for my wife. I can get this delicious peanut butter trail mix. There's decent BBQ - not real wait in line BBQ but better than any other road trip food I'm stopping for.

What else could I need?

 

[Ron Swanson]

Well, I’ll be in Kentucky in a few weeks…looks like there’s one in Richmond, about an hour away from my destination (Red River Gorge). If I ever need a clean bathroom, highly processed calories, or whatever the locals enjoy (bourbon?), I’ll make a side trip.

You can skip the mega-buc-ee's, they suck.

The good buc-ee's are in the houston area.

Giddings as well. Although I haven't been that way in a while.

 

[Ron Swanson]

Cheap ice is another big benefit if you travel, camp, hunt, or fish. .99 for a 10 pound bag. I got so used to it that I thought that's what ice normally sells for. Then I moved to Florida and got shocked by the 8 pound bag for 2.99 BS damn near everywhere.

Many McDonald's sell 8-10 lb bags of ice for $1-$2 depending on the store.

Cheap ice is another big benefit if you travel, camp, hunt, or fish. .99 for a 10 pound bag. I got so used to it that I thought that's what ice normally sells for. Then I moved to Florida and got shocked by the 8 pound bag for 2.99 BS damn near everywhere.

Many McDonald's sell 8-10 lb bags of ice for $1-$2 depending on the store.

Sonic

Not to derail the thread with Ice Chat, but I believe Starbucks will give you a crapton of ice for free if you have something to put it in.

I don't want to buy ice from McDonald's because I don't want to feel like I need to buy their food. And I won't beg it from Starbucks or anywhere else. Sonic's mushy ice while great for slushies is terrible for coolers. I just want to buy good, cheap ice in large quantities with no expectations or encumbrances. Can't beat Buc-ees for that.