Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Gas stations & convenience stores (AM/PM, 7-Eleven, etc.)
Alpha8472
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Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Post by Alpha8472 »

Buc-ee's is going to build a new 75,000 square foot store next to its old one in Luling, Texas. The largest store is currently in Sevierville, Tennessee. The new store will return the title of the largest. Buc-ee's to Texas.

Beaver and Don opened the first Buc-ee's Family Travel Center in Luling in 2003. The stores feature Texas Barbecue, fresh baked goods, homemade fudge, and Beaver nuggets.

The new store will feature 120 fueling positions and employ 200 people.

I cannot even imagine how there can even be enough customers for a gas station of this size?

In California, we have nothing as big as this. It seems like this is more of a supermarket or shopping destination.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on July 6th, 2022, 9:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Post by jamcool »

Basically a Stuckey’s on steroids. And they are a “ destination” place.
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Re: Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Post by mbz321 »

Alpha8472 wrote: July 6th, 2022, 11:23 am Buc-ee's is going to build a new 75,000 square foot store next to its old one in Luling, Texas. The largest store is currently in Sevierville, Tennessee. The new store will return the title of the largest. Buc-ee's to Texas.

Beaver and Don opened the first Buc-ee's Family Travel Center in Luling in 2003. The store feature Texas Barbecue, fresh baked goods, homemade fudge, and Beaver nuggets.

The new store will feature 120 fueling positions and employ 200 people.

I cannot even imagine how there can even be enough customers for a gas station of this size?

In California, we have nothing as big as this. It seems like this is more of a supermarket or shopping destination.
On a recent trip to Florida, I stopped at two locations (one in Florence, SC, which only opened a few weeks prior to my visit, and another around Daytona Beach which has been there since 2017), my first Buc-ee's experience. Both were were absolutely jam packed, including the fuel pumps (the Daytona one was matching the price of Sam's across the road)! If you aren't a fan of crowds, these definitely aren't the place for you. The selection is pretty overwhelming...they are definitely a destination store, not something you can just plop down anywhere.
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Re: Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: July 6th, 2022, 11:23 am Buc-ee's is going to build a new 75,000 square foot store next to its old one in Luling, Texas. The largest store is currently in Sevierville, Tennessee. The new store will return the title of the largest. Buc-ee's to Texas.

Beaver and Don opened the first Buc-ee's Family Travel Center in Luling in 2003. The store feature Texas Barbecue, fresh baked goods, homemade fudge, and Beaver nuggets.

The new store will feature 120 fueling positions and employ 200 people.

I cannot even imagine how there can even be enough customers for a gas station of this size?

In California, we have nothing as big as this. It seems like this is more of a supermarket or shopping destination.
In these more spread out/wide open areas you would be surprised how many people stop at a place like this. They have a lot to offer and folks can stay a while. With that many gas pumps you could park under a pump (which in a lot of their territories during the summer you'd probably want to keep parked under the canopy), go inside for 15 minutes, and not worry too much about hogging a pump.

These places serve as a gas stop, snack stop, restroom stop, and meal stop all in one.
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Re: Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Post by J-Man »

The closest thing we have in California is Eddie World in Yermo (outside Barstow.) But it's only 27,000 square feet.
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Re: Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Post by pseudo3d »

There is absolutely enough people to make it work. Check out the existing Google Maps photo, and that's not even on a big weekend. There are dozens of cars in the parking lot.
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Re: Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Post by buckguy »

Sevierville is home to Dollywood (technically in an adjacent town) and the gateway to Gatlinburg and Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's also the Northern end of what I assume is still one of the biggest tourist traps in the country with slow going traffic Southward. Last time I was near the national park (about 3 years ago), we purposely avoided the area. It's the perfect place for one of these destination-type locations, although the trade is probably seasonal.

The one in Texas will be off the main Houston-San Antonia expressway where it meets one of the routes to Austin. I assume it's a logical place for a comfort stop that has gas and other stuff to sell.
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Re: Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Post by architect »

buckguy wrote: July 9th, 2022, 1:40 pm The one in Texas will be off the main Houston-San Antonia expressway where it meets one of the routes to Austin. I assume it's a logical place for a comfort stop that has gas and other stuff to sell.
In Texas, the routes of Interstates 10, 35, and 45 are known as the "Texas Triangle" and are all heavily-trafficked routes between the state's four largest metro areas, comprising 66% of the state's population and 77% of the state's GDP. A substantial portion of Buc-ee's development has centered around these corridors in recent years, with more even more locations planned (such as Hillsboro in between DFW and Waco, right at the split between 35E and 35W heading into Dallas/Fort Worth respectively).
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Re: Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Post by Brian Lutz »

I was able to pay a visit to the Buc-ee's in Crossville Tennessee today as we approach the final destination of our cross country move. The place was an absolute madhouse, there had to be hundreds of cars in the parking lot. After posting to my family Marco Polo about the visit, I had several different people tell me that I absolutely had to try some item there, and each person had a different item. Part of the novelty might be the fact that none of them live near one (mostly west coast people) but there seems to be a lot of buzz around the place, at least for now.

That said, I can see these doing well in a lot of places they aren't in now, but I can also see them oversaturating their market quickly if they go overboard. A store off I-40 in the Sevierville/Gatlinburg area is set to open soon, and I already wonder if putting a store that close to the Crossville one will work. It probably will because Gatlinburg is a giant tourist trap, but having two of them that close seems risky. There are also no locations in North Carolina currently (one in SC on the I-95 corridor) but it seems like a centrally located one in a place like Statesville where it can draw from both Charlotte and the Piedmont Triad might do well.
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Re: Largest Buc-ee's To Be Built in Luling, Texas

Post by storewanderer »

If they keep a unique product offer and low cost fuel, along with clean facilities, I think they can keep the buzz going among interstate customers.

And looking into the future if you have to spend 20 minutes charging an EV would you rather do it at a 75k square foot place like this or a little 2k square foot (insert name of big oil company here) dealer gas station with one single unisex restroom that requires a key for entry that is hooked to a big stick or license plate or something else you do not want to touch, that the single clerk on duty never has time to clean, and the freshest food on offer is the fountain drink machine or coffee made out of coffee concentrate mixed with hot water.
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