To know Buc-ee’s is to love Buc-ee’s.
Whether it’s the amazing food (and the incredible value)…
The super clean bathrooms…
All kinds of great merch, clothing, tchotchkes, and more…
Or the world records it holds…
Buc-ee’s is amazing.
There’s only one problem:
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It’s genuinely hard to find one outside of Texas!
Currently there are only about 60 Buc-ee’s around the country.
In fact, 41 states still have to do without a single Buc-ee’s (here are the nine that fortunately have at least one).
That’s for a simple reason: Management has prioritized customer experience over rapid growth, and Buc-ee’s only began expanding outside Texas in 2019, when it built its first Alabama location.
Since then, Buc-ee’s has expanded slowly but steadily, with no more than two locations per state outside Texas.
That’s all about to change, however, for one lucky state: Florida.
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Buc-ee’s is expanding its planned footprint in the state to include a total of five Buc-ee’s – the most outside of Texas.
This is part of a broader tempo increase – Buc-ee’s is adding quite a few new stores in the next few years.
In places as far-flung as Wisconsin, Ohio, Arizona, and even Virginia.
But Florida is a special case – because five is totally unprecedented outside of Texas.
To understand why Florida is the perfect place for such an aggressive expansion, we need to talk a little bit about Buc-ee’s general strategy…
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I’ve spent a long time watching how Buc-ee’s does business, and the part that’s always been most intriguing to me is how and where they site their stores. It goes a little bit like this:
– Find a highway with lots of traffic
– Usually between two big cities or near a major destination (national park, raceway, that kind of thing)
– Look for a place where lots of people are already stopping (so, maybe it’s at the halfway mark or just an hour away from one of the big cities / destinations)
– Buy up 23-25 acres of cheap land (ideally in an exurb, not in an expensive suburb)
Then build!
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I’ve always thought of Buc-ee’s approach as a “destination along the way” strategy.
Here’s what that means:
Everyone is going to stop somewhere – so why not make it Buc-ee’s?
If you can deliver a superior experience, everyone will pick Buc-ee’s over whatever other gas station is available to them.
This allows Buc-ee’s to vacuum up all kinds of business that would otherwise be spread out among a variety of other gas stations.
But it means that Buc-ee’s has to really be thoughtful about where it goes.
And that’s for a simple reason:
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Most gas stations are focused on just being extremely convenient. With a small footprint (2,000-4,000 square feet), one attendant, and minimal costs, they can make sure to have locations at every exit possible.
Buc-ee’s has gone hard in the opposite direction. Most new builds are 74,000 square feet or more. (That’s about double the size of your typical grocery store, and around half the size of a Costco!)
120 pumps, a couple dozen EV chargers, and a fully-utilized 74,000 square feet of retail space means tons of employees.
Typical Buc-ee’s have a staff of 125-250 people, depending on size, location, and specific offerings.
This is not a small endeavor!
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If you’ve ever worked retail, you know that gas stations don’t usually pay all that well.
Buc-ee’s does it differently.
Cashiers are their lowest-paid employees, and they make $18 an hour. Restroom staff get $20 an hour.
Department managers are in the $25-$33 range.
And if you’re lucky enough to be a car wash manager, you make $125,000+ a year.
So to summarize…
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Buc-ee’s features a:
– Much bigger footprint
– With more inventory
– With more staff
– Who are paid better
That’s a lot of costs!
The only thing that makes it work is tons of traffic.
But don’t just take my word for it – Buc-ee’s revealed in documents tied to their planned Kansas City location that they were expecting a whopping 4 million annual visitors there.
So Buc-ee’s has to be smart about where it’s going.
And where it’s going is Florida.
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Currently Buc-ee’s has two locations in Florida:
– Daytona Beach
– Saint Augustine
And you’ll see that these check those kind of “typical Buc-ee’s location” boxes in a lot of ways.
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Buc-ee’s didn’t build in downtown Daytona Beach.
In fact, they’re right off I-95 across the street from a Sam’s Club.
And less than a mile from the Daytona International Speedway.
So basically – if you’re driving into Daytona Beach…you’ll pass right by.
Daytona Beach gets 10 million annual tourists, by the way. It all adds up!
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Saint Augustine is quite a bit further north, and again you can see Buc-ee’s careful site selection at play.
They didn’t build in the city proper, but next to a big golf resort midway between St. Augustine and Jacksonville.
And again, right off I-95, in a retail cluster which includes Costco and Bass Pro Shops.
Another great location.
Of course, this begs the question – if Buc-ee’s is just going to plop stores down along I-95, won’t it cannibalize traffic?
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They have now been three new planned locations announced:
– Ocala (near Orlando)
– Fort Pierce
– I-10 near Tallahassee
Let’s dive in!
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Fort Pierce is a continuation of Buc-ee’s clear strategy of moving down the coast of eastern Florida.
It’s just south of Vero Beach, right off I-95, and you have to pass by on your way to West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, and ultimately Miami.
If it’s worked well with two Buc-ee’s significantly further north in the state…why not try and capture people as they continue the hours-long trek on I-95 down to southern Florida?
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It’s all about proximity here.
Ocala is about 60-90 minutes north of Orlando, with The Villages (a sprawling retirement community with about 100,000 residents) directly in-between.
Florida’s first two Buc-ee’s, plus Fort Pierce, are a play on the I-95 corridor in the eastern part of the state.
Ocala is right off I-75 and holds the keys to Central Florida and, of course, Orlando.
My view is that this is a pretty obvious play for Disney traffic.
(Disney gets 58 million annual visitors. So – not too many have to stop to exceed that 4 million number I mentioned earlier!)
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This one was just announced (yesterday), so we don’t know a whole lot yet about this location.
But the location tells us a lot. I-10 – which runs all the way west to San Antonio – is already popular for Buc-ee’s.
In fact, they’ve got a new location under construction near Biloxi to serve traffic between Mobile, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge.
My guess is they build in a close suburb or exurb of Tallahassee in hopes of vacuuming up further traffic eastbound to Jacksonville.
Again, this is an expansion of past work – I-10 has already proved lucrative for them, so why not keep building further out on it?
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Zooming out from the specific locations, fact is that Florida checks a lot of boxes for Buc-ee’s:
– One of the most-populated states in the country
– Huge tourist destination
– Tons of car traffic
– Mostly southern culture (Buc-ee’s is almost exclusively in southern states – for now)
– Already has two Buc-ee’s, so it’s a proven commodity.
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So congratulations Florida, you lucky ducks!
Now here’s the big question: Where do YOU think Buc-ee’s should build next?
Let us know in the comments!
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Central Florida Lakeland area
We need a Buc-ees in south Florida, at least around Tampa.