June 12, 2024, aerial view of Buc-ee’s convenience store in Luling, Texas. Buc-ee’s, a Texas-based convenience store and gas station, has become the world’s largest convenience store with over 100 gas pumps and a 75,000 square foot store.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
As Independence Day approaches and Americans head to the beach, the mountains, or anywhere in between, there’s a good chance they’ll see something they didn’t see a few years ago: a giant gas station.
Gas stations have reinvented themselves over the past decade by offering food that rivals many established specialty grocery chains. But now they are working on something else. It’s about getting bigger and attracting more fans.
Buc-ee’s is a stalwart of the growing gas station phenomenon, with more than 50 stores in 13 states.
Sally Mackin drove from her home near Roanoke, Virginia, to Dayton, Ohio, to celebrate the opening of her first location in the state. “I’m definitely a big Bucks fan,” McQueen said, using the familiar nickname of an old friend. She added that she posed for a photo with the chain’s owner, who visited the Dayton opening.
On a recent summer evening, Dayton Buc-ee’s had nearly all of the station’s 120 pumps in use, but the real action was happening inside the store. There, employees chant “Brisket on the Booooard” every time a fresh brisket is moved to the carving station. And customers eat brisket sandwiches, three-meat sandwiches, whatever. The largest Buc-ee’s in Texas is over 75,000 square feet. For comparison, gas stations like Sheets and Wawa are typically around 7,000 square feet. The low-end Walmart is about 150,000 square feet.
“Traditional gas stations are rapidly transforming from fuel exchanges to vast, multifaceted retail and travel destinations. This evolution is primarily driven by the razor-thin profit margins on gasoline, forcing operators to shift customers to higher-margin convenience stores and food services. They are forced to use fuel as a loss leader to draw in,” said Sudip Mazumdar, senior vice president, retail industry lead for North America at Publicis Sapient, a digital business transformation and marketing consultancy.
Other factors driving this growth include changing consumer expectations for cleaner and more experiential stops, the need to accommodate electric vehicles that require longer charging times, and the long-standing need to broadly accommodate professional truck drivers.
Gas stations have been expanding in size and transforming into all-in-one travel centers for some time. But Buc-ee’s accelerated the trend and spawned copycat stores like Wally’s, which has three 50,000-square-foot stores in the Midwest and plans to open more. The store has a Midwestern feel and features amenities such as a popcorn bar and a jerky selection that rivals Buc-ee’s.
Intentionally or not, these stores are capitalizing on the nostalgia associated with traditional family road trip adventures by offering more than just a gas station with a seedy restroom, said Tom Senn, a professor of professional practice at Texas Christian University.And with millions of Americans still vacationing on the road, interstates are the perfect place for them.
“For some people, these stores have become a destination in themselves,” Sen said.
He said local residents can also use it as a de facto grocery store and gas station. “I’ve been to Buc-ee’s many times myself, so I know there are a lot of gas stations, so you don’t have to wait long. The restrooms are clean and there’s plenty of food,” Sen said, noting that the enticing aroma of barbecue and various roasted nuts wafts in from the moment you enter.
Companies have much higher profit margins selling food and gifts than gasoline.
“Buc-ee’s doesn’t advertise gas prices like its competitors, but it’s more of a service to draw customers into the store,” Sen said.
Grand opening of Dolly Parton’s Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop. 18 acre development including dog park, theater, restaurant and bar, trucker showers and lounge.
Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop
And now we have Dries, where Gus seems almost like an afterthought. There are only 16 pumps in the massive 25,000-square-foot, 18-acre building that includes a dog park, theater, restaurant and bar, trucker showers and lounges. But after the grand opening of the first Dolly’s in Cornersville, Tennessee last week, look for more, bigger Dolly’s stores. The store also featured the store’s namesake, a nod to Buc-ee’s during the ribbon cutting.
“Initially, we are focused on making our Cornersville flagship store the best location possible. Our plan is to open stores across the country in a deliberate and deliberate manner,” said Gregory H. Sachs, partner at Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stops. Sachs said Parton and his team were involved in every aspect of creating Travel Stop.
Elizabeth LaFontaine, research director at location analytics company Placer.ai, said the latest behemoths are a natural progression in the space and have outlived their own category name.
“The convenience store channel has evolved beyond its name in many ways to become a full-service, one-stop shop for consumers,” LaFontaine said. “As the lines between grocery stores, convenience stores (C-stores) and quick-service restaurants blur, convenience store chains have effectively changed shopper perceptions and become essential destinations, whether on a regular weekday or as a special stop during the holidays,” LaFontaine said.
According to data from Placer.ai, shoppers are spending more time in-store at chains that focus on prepared foods and unique items, with Buc-ee’s dwell time the longest among c-store chains and nearly twice as long as its closest competitor.
Average length of stay at convenience store chains (minutes)
Buc-ee’s: 20.8Wawa: 11.7Sheetz: 11.77-Eleven: 9.8Circle K: 9.3Casey’s General Store: 8.7Cumberland Farms: 8.5
Source: Placer.ai
Lafontaine said the definition of the category has expanded as different c-store formats have emerged and grown in popularity.
“Social media is playing a key role in elevating local products to the national stage, prompting all chains 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 superstores in both size and selection, chains need to consider how to maximize their popularity without creating too much competition.
“Large chains like Buc-ee’s have been successful in adding general merchandise and private label products, which account for nearly 50% of their floor space and are often as popular as prepared foods among shoppers. However, this strategy can be limited by the C-store model and is not necessarily indicative of how other chains intend to compete for consumer attention,” LaFontaine said.
Buc-ee’s has been successful in making customers spend more time in the store, something that Dolly’s and Wally’s are trying to emulate. In particular, Dolly’s entertainment options will enhance your stay. For example, an upcoming event will feature story time in the auditorium from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Marview Brown, CEO and founder of Customer Obsession Advantage, a customer experience consulting firm, says success is about zeitgeist, not scale. “They have to have that kind of cabbage-patch appeal so that people who stop by feel they have to have a cabbage-patch. Those are the aspects of the Buc-ee experience that these competitors need to emulate, not the size,” Brown said. “Buc-ee’s was a great success. People want to buy T-shirts that tell the world they were there,” Brown said.
Square footage is limited.
“While these stores have the potential to become significantly larger, physical expansion faces practical limits in terms of land availability, zoning, and operational complexity, suggesting that future growth may prioritize optimizing service and space over square footage,” Mazumdar said.
In fact, super-large convenience stores and gas stations may be approaching that limit.
These stores are designed to serve interstate travelers, so they are not located in major urban areas, preferring rural settings along highways. “This will benefit small towns that are connected to interstates. Buc-ee’s seems to be setting the standard right now, but I don’t think we’ll see any larger stores developed than what we have now,” Sen said.
Dolly’s says it focuses on providing a place that feels like home. “Bigger is not generally better,” Sachs said. “Therefore, there will be some maximum size at which the sense of ‘home’ is lost. We don’t yet know what that exact size is,” he said.
In the end, Brown says, all the brisket, fudge, beef jerky, and kitschy freeway accoutrements may not be as important as the one aspect of the experience that every chain restaurant needs to implement. “People love Buc-ee’s for one thing that makes them stop more than anything else: clean bathrooms.”
“The idea is that clean facilities make people feel comfortable. If the restrooms are comfortable, they’re comfortable eating there and spending more money. If the restrooms aren’t clean, we won’t eat here,” he said.
