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Buc-ee's Gives Consumers Two Reasons to Shop: #1 and #2

September 26, 2012Written by Tom Ryan

Buc-ee's, the c-store and gas station operator with 26 locations in the Central & Gulf Coast region of Texas, gets a lot credit for its offerings and prices, but it's famous for its bathrooms.

Some of its popular, irreverent billboards along Texas highways emphasize the chain's expansive and quirky food selections such "Ice, Beer, Jerky: The 3 Food Groups" and "Eat Here. Get Gas." But many play to the bathroom theme. Near the Louisiana border, a billboard reads: "Only 262 Miles to Buc-ee's. You Can Hold It." Some more common ones include: "Restrooms So Clean We Leave Mints In the Urinals," and "The Top Two Reasons to Stop at Buc-ee's: #1 and #2."

Arch Palin and Don Wakes opened their first c-store in Lake Jackson, TX in 1982 and had apparently always made a commitment to spotless bathrooms. But the reputation didn't start building across the state until the first over-sized flagship store opened in 2004 in Lulling, TX. The store became a roadside institution, selling its celebrated caramel and butter glazed corn puffs named "Beaver Nuggets," 18 kinds of homemade fudge, hunting supplies, smoke pits and souvenir T-shirts and bumper stickers along with gas, beer and soda.

But the largest chatter became its extra large and super-clean bathrooms that were also featured in its several larger destination stores opened in the years ahead.

"These are the restrooms. Texas sized restrooms, Buc-ee's style." Mr. Palin recently told Austin YNN. "This is something you'd expect to find in a really nice hotel, maybe in someone's home."

In a recent article on the chain, The Wall Street Journal said Mr. Aplin "realized the traveling public would drive a little farther for the promise of a super-scrubbed restroom, after his decision to splurge on bathrooms won Buc-ee's a cult following."

The paper was profiling Buc'ees' largest store that opened in New Braunfels in May 2012 measuring 67,000 square feet. The location features 60 gasoline pumps, 80 soda dispensers, 31 cash registers along with "84 gleaming toilets, each with its own dispenser of hand sanitizer and shined at all hours by a small army of attendants."

The New Braunfels store's bathrooms also recently landed as a finalist for Cintas's annual America's Best Restroom Contest, the only retailer to make the cut. According to the contest website, "Customers making a beeline for the bathroom at Buc-ee's say this Texas-based business flushes the competition when it comes to clean! Offering up some of the most spotless loos in the Lone Star State, the Buc-ee's brand of convenience stores knows firsthand that clean bathrooms mean big business!"

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