If you’ve been to Buc-ee’s on a roadtrip, you know just how special it is.
The Beaver Nuggets. The wall of jerky. The Beaver Tails. The fudge. The kolaches.
The brisket sandwiches!
The selection. The merch.
The clean bathrooms.
Just the sheer size, magnitude, and quality of it all.
And if you’ve only experienced Buc-ee’s on a roadtrip to Texas so far…then I have great news:
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Buc-ee’s is expanding…rapidly!
While it’s currently only open in nine states, there are several more about to come online.
(Plus, more “infill” locations in states that only have one or two Buc-ee’s.)
So if you live in one of these five states, get excited, because a Buc-ee’s could be about to get much closer:
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Location: Harrison County on the Gulf Coast
Completion timeline: Spring 2025.
Other details: This should be a standard 74,000-square-foot build like we’re seeing for most new Buc-ee’s at this point.
The expectation is that it will have a car wash, 120 pumps, and 24 EV chargers.
Plus, of course, all the Beaver Nuggets and jerky you can eat!
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If you look at a map of the American southeast, Mississippi and Louisiana are the states that got missed.
Buc-ee’s hopped from Texas right over to Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, even South Carolina!
So it’s about time Mississippi residents got a chance to try Buc-ee’s delicious chopped brisket sandwich without having to cross state lines.
And what’s more…
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The Gulf Coast is a great location for a Buc-ee’s – Harrison County straddles I-10 as it runs from Mobile down to New Orleans (and splits I-12 off for Baton Rouge).
This is a very busy corridor with tons of tourist traffic courtesy of the casinos en route.
It’s a great place for a Buc-ee’s, in short, so I’m not at all surprised that it’s where they’re building.
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This is emblematic of what I’ve come to call Buc-ee’s building strategy.
I’ve observed that Buc-ee’s tends to build:
– Between big cities (usually in a cheaper suburb or exurb)
– Near a busy highway
– Often near a big tourist draw (a racetrack, a national park, that sort of thing)
And as you can see, Harrison County really checks all three boxes.
As does our next location:
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Location: Rockingham County near Harrisonburg and Shenandoah National Park
Completion timeline: June 30th, 2025 (that’s when the grand opening is scheduled, having recently moved up from July 4th!)
Other details: This will be another standard 74,000-sf build with 120 gas pumps.
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Rockingham County straddles I-81, which is a popular route for truckers and any of the 1.4 million people who visit Shenandoah National Park each year.
Plus, the county seat is the independent city of Harrisonburg – which hosts James Madison University.
That’s 20,000+ students…plus their parents, friends, and alumni (and prospective students too)…who will all be just waiting to spend money on good-quality, cheap food as they visit and live there.
Again, a slam-dunk location for Buc-ee’s, for different reasons from the Gulf Coast!
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Buc-ee’s is also currently building another location in Virginia, in New Kent (a Richmond suburb on I-64) with a planned delivery sometime in 2026 or 2027.
(Construction won’t complete until road improvements have been finished, which are ongoing.)
And Buc-ee’s is also currently in negotiations to build a third location in Stafford on I-95.
Lots happening in Virginia!
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Location: Goodyear (just west of Phoenix)
Completion timeline: By end of 2025
Other details: This will be yet another standard 74,000-sf build with 120 gas pumps. (I promise not all of them are; we’ll cover one that’s different when we get to Tennessee.)
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As we’ve discussed previously, Buc-ee’s tends to like suburbs and exurbs, since it needs quite a bit of acreage.
(To accommodate Buc-ee’s, Goodyear rezoned a whopping 71 acres of land.)
Goodyear has the keys to I-10 as it runs west from Phoenix to Joshua Tree National Park and eventually to San Diego.
This is an incredibly busy highway, and I’m confident Buc-ee’s will become another major destination on the way!
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Location: Huber Heights, just north of Dayton
Completion timeline: Late 2025; due to some construction delays after a dustup over water rights, this may end up getting pushed into very early 2026, but so far it looks like they’ll maintain the 2025 timeline.
Other details: We’re light on details with this Buc-ee’s, but it’s expected to employ 200 people and have all the usual stuff – wall of beef jerky, tons of Beaver Nuggets, fudge, hot food, and more.
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Huber Heights is located just off I-70, which positions it nicely to handle traffic from Columbus, through Dayton, and out to Indianapolis.
(And let’s face it – Cincinnati is just to the south, so anyone visiting Dayton on a day trip could pop up to Huber Heights and visit Buc-ee’s as well.)
This is Buc-ee’s first store in the rust belt, and I’m betting we’ll see more in future years if things go well here.
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Location: Murfreesboro, southeast of Nashville.
Completion timeline: The road improvements should be finished by March 2026, so I’d expect this Buc-ee’s to open around then.
Other details: This Buc-ee’s is expected to be 76,245 square feet, which would eclipse the current largest Buc-ee’s on earth.
Otherwise, it’ll be pretty standard – 490 parking spots, 15 places for RVs / buses, and the standard 120 gas pumps.
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Right now Tennessee’s two Buc-ee’s are both in the eastern half of the state – one in Crossville, and one in Kodak.
Murfreesboro will represent its first foray into central Tennessee as Buc-ee’s works to capture traffic on the Chattanooga-to-Nashville corridor of I-24.
My two cents – this is a play on Nashville’s continuing growth more than anything else, as well as what must have been a superb reception in eastern Tennessee.
It makes sense – Texas bbq is great!
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So there you have it – my best guess as to the next five states with a Buc-ee’s opening.
Of course, stuff happens! Construction projections can be off. Sometimes things get reprioritized. Road work can get delayed.
But regardless, all five of these states are expecting to get a new Buc-ee’s soon, and I’m thrilled to see it!
Which brings me to an important question…
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We’ve talked about Buc-ee’s general strategy for building on new sites.
With that in mind – usually somewhere exurban or maybe a cheaper suburb…between two cities…next to a well-trafficked highway…and sometimes near a tourist attraction…
Where do you think Buc-ee’s should build next?
Let us know in the comments!
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