Buc-ee’s is amazing.
You know this. I know this.
Anyone who’s been to one knows this.
And that’s by design.
But it also limits where Buc-ee’s can build.
So even though Buc-ee’s has been on an absolute building tear and opening up new states left and right…
I still think we can comfortably rule out several states when considering where Buc-ee’s could build next.
Here’s why:
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Buc-ee’s focuses very hard on delivering an amazing experience to every guest, every time, even earning the nickname the “Disney World of gas stations.”
Part of it is just sheer size – the typical Buc-ee’s is 50,000+ square feet, which is about 50% bigger than your average grocery store!
(And 12-15x bigger than a typical convenience store. Buc-ee’s stores are big!)
And they use all that space to sell…just about everything.
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The hot food.
The cold food.
The pre-packaged food.
Drinks. Shirts. Merch. Cookware.
You can buy just about anything there!
The typical Buc-ee’s employs 150+ people.
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Buc-ee’s pays cashiers a starting wage of $18 an hour. Restroom crew gets $20 an hour.
Department managers? $25-$33.
Car wash managers? $125,000+ a year.
You get the idea.
This is a big, expensive operation.
Only one thing makes it all work…
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We got a look into Buc-ee’s strategy when they filed for their new proposed Kansas City location.
More specifically, management revealed that they were expecting 4 million annual visitors to that location alone.
This is a big operation, and it all depends on smart site selection.
More specifically…
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I’ve observed that Buc-ee’s generally picks sites based on a handful of criteria:
– Near a big highway
– Between two big cities or tourist destinations (or both)
– Somewhere cheap (and usually with tax breaks available – they’re usually targeting 20+ acre parcels)
With that in mind…
A handful of states will just never meet those criteria.
Here are a few where I don’t expect Buc-ee’s to ever build…
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Vermont is frequently passed over by restaurant chains because it’s so small and rural.
There’s just not enough traffic. And the largest city is Burlington, population 45,000.
Plus, it does a great job supporting its local businesses. The flip side of that is that Vermonters tend to avoid chains.
For reference, it doesn’t have a Chick-fil-A. Or a Waffle House.
Sorry Vermont, it’s just not gonna happen.
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File this one under “obvious” – Alaska is just too geographically dispersed and isolated to get a Buc-ee’s.
Especially beacuse Buc-ee’s is dependent on car traffic, and although Alaska has plenty of tourists – they mostly travel by ship!
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Idaho has just one large city – Boise, population 235,000 – and is geographically isolated from other major population centers (which are in the western sections of Washington State and Oregon – that’s Seattle and Portland, of course).
Plus, Generally road-trippers who are traveling to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks will be coming from the east.
(As an aside – there definitely needs to be a Buc-ee’s in Wyoming near Yellowstone. I could definitely see that doing a ton of business!)
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No surprise – Hawaii is too small and too isolated.
I mean, just imagine how expensive it would be to bring all the food over to be cooked and stocked at Buc-ee’s!
And a long road trip (the lifeblood of Bucee’s) is pretty much impossible.
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Like Vermont, Maine is just a little too rural and isolated.
Its largest city, Portland, has a population of under 70,000.
And while there is some cross-border traffic from Canada…I’m not sure that Buc-ee’s will have quite the same appeal that it does in the southern United States.
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North Dakota’s got oil. And lots of it!
But that’s just not going to generate enough of the kind of traffic that Buc-ee’s would need.
I’m sorry, but it’s true.
(By contrast, South Dakota’s got all the tourist attractions. Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, all of that.)
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Rhode Island won’t work for the simple reason that the logical place for Buc-ee’s to build is in Massachusetts.
If Buc-ee’s wants to take advantage of traffic between Providence (Rhode Island’s only large-ish city – population around 190,000) and Boston…all the space in between those cities is in Massachusetts.
I just don’t think Providence and Worcester, MA (population ~206,000) combined have enough population to be interesting for Buc-ee’s, and the logical place to take advantage of outbound traffic from Hartford, CT is either between Hartford and Springfield, MA (population ~154,000) or Hartford and New Haven.
Plus, Rhode Island real estate is very expensive. It just doesn’t pass the smell test.
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I went back and forth over this one for a while, but the more I’ve thought about it and researched it, the more I think it’s true – New Jersey just doesn’t make sense for Buc-ee’s.
It does check lots of boxes…
– Big population centers
– Tons of through traffic
– And I-95 and the New Jersey Turnpike are the obvious places to build.
However, there’s a big problem:
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New Jersey doesn’t let people pump their own gas. A gas station employee has to do it for you.
Buc-ee’s would have to staff all of its gas pumps.
So let’s work the math here…
Starting pay for Buc-ee’s employees is $18 an hour.
Assuming you’re able to do a ratio of one employee per two gas pumps (I could see an argument for one per four gas pumps to maximize efficiency or one per each gas pump if they really wanted to differentiate on service – I’m splitting the difference here for illustrative purposes), that works out to 60 employees for a standard 120-pump build.
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Of course, you wouldn’t have to keep that level of staffing at all hours of day and night…there are fewer people driving at 2am than at 5pm, right?
So let’s say the average worked out to more like 30 full-time equivalents…60 at peak times, 20 at off times, with gradations up and down depending on traffic.
At $18 per hour * 30 employees * 24 hours a day * 365 days…that’s $4.7 million in extra annual expenses just from wages (not including taxes, insurance, benefits, etc.).
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Now again, this isn’t a “correct” amount – it’s just illustrative of the kinds of extra expenses Buc-ee’s might incur.
But it really emphasizes the key underlying question, which is:
Why go to all that trouble, if you can just build right across the border in Delaware or New York?
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So there you have it – eight states that, unfortunately, I’m pretty sure will never see their own Buc-ee’s.
It’s a shame, but you can’t argue with the economics!
Buc-ee’s is big, and it needs a lot of people passing by to make the whole enterprise work.
So now that we know where Buc-ee’s probably won’t build…
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And we also know where Buc-ee’s is currently planning to build…
Where should Buc-ee’s build next?
Let us know in the comments!
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