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Travel ✈️ Buc-ees is coming to Utah

SlaveToTheGrind

SlaveToTheGrind

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Rumor was out a few months ago. Officially announced this week with a MOU with Springville. Never been to Buc-ees but understand the appeal of a gas station with more to offer than just gas. There is a "travel stop" in St. Regis, MT, what we stop at yearly to and from Washington, that has food, gifts, and a freshwater aquarium. I get the appeal. Just cannot fathom a 70,000 facility and 120 gas pumps. The predominate c-store Maverik (180+ in the state) just acquired Kum and Go out of Iowa and is rebranding all of those locations. I wonder what Maverik is thinking. Certainly will take away some business but I don't think they will be too worried unless Buc-ees goes "busy as a beaver" and develops throughout the state.
 
We need Buc-Ees in Upstate New York !!! It would be a smash hit here, as long as they keep away from the NYC/Downstate market.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
Rumor was out a few months ago. Officially announced this week with a MOU with Springville. Never been to Buc-ees but understand the appeal of a gas station with more to offer than just gas. There is a "travel stop" in St. Regis, MT, what we stop at yearly to and from Washington, that has food, gifts, and a freshwater aquarium. I get the appeal. Just cannot fathom a 70,000 facility and 120 gas pumps. The predominate c-store Maverik (180+ in the state) just acquired Kum and Go out of Iowa and is rebranding all of those locations. I wonder what Maverik is thinking. Certainly will take away some business but I don't think they will be too worried unless Buc-ees goes "busy as a beaver" and develops throughout the state.
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I stopped at the one in Kodak, TN. The bathrooms were probably the cleanest I’ve ever seen in a travel plaza. The brisket sandwich was just okay, not bad but not amazing. It was a good spot to stretch my legs and take a break. Easy in, easy out for gas, which is always a plus. I’d definitely stop again if I was passing through and needed fuel or a restroom.
 
Utahns love a good gas station, right? Considering convenience stores in UT, I would say Maverik is the biggest, followed closely by Holiday, right? The Mav probably isn't worried, they have a pretty good strangle-hold (damn them and their delicious hot dog bars!) but I bet Holiday franchise owners are sweating it a little.

@Big Owl Seriously? They have a brisket sandwich? I don't even care if it's mid, I can BUY it when I'm refilling my 44 oz. diet dew and topping off my tank on a whim! Get them here IMMEDIATELY!!! I didn't know just how middle-aged and white I was until I typed that sentence.
 
We have one coming to my fair City. Probably opening in early '28 to coincide with the widening of I-95 and other improvements. They already have concept approval and they've closed on the land so it's pretty certain. There will be traffic issues for sure but they pay very well and quite frankly the property and hospitality tax revenue should help allow us to take on some significant capital projects.
 
The closest Buc-ee's to me is about 400 miles away, just south of Lexington, Kentucky.

I have never been but am sort of tempted to find an excuse to go check it out just to see what all the hubbub is about. Is it really that great or do they just have an awesome marketing team? Seriously - 6+ hours away yet I still see people in Metro Detroit with Buc-ee's bumper stickers and t-shirts. There was a house near us last year that had a giant Buc-ee Beaver inflatable Christmas decoration on their lawn last winter. I was watching the Disney cartoon Big City Greens with one of our daughters last year and even that show had an episode all about a trip to a gas station that was an obvious parody of Buc-ee's.
 
I don't get why people love them so much. The food is ok, better than most gas stations but not that great. The brisket is too fatty for me. The jerky will break your teeth. My wife likes some of their healthier options. The rest of the stuff is a mix between a convenience store and low budget beaver themed Cracker Barrel store. The bathrooms are spotless and there are lot of them. At least one employee is always in the bathroom cleaning, which may be the one of the worst jobs. The gas runs about $0.20 cheaper than nearby spots on the interstate.

It's an absolute pain getting in and out of most of them. There are so many people in the parking lot and driving around the pumps. Its seems so hectic. I've never been in one for less than 30 minutes between the car lines outside and inside checkout.

In most cases, its not worth the $3.00 I'm going to save to go there.

That being said the revenue they generate is insane. I assume as they become more common, this will start to decrease. I also have no clue what the site could be used for if a massive gas station no longer makes economic sense.
 
I know the city next door is getting one. It's on I-10 on your way into the Phoenix metro so a good place to stop. Lots of distribution centers and trucking in the area. It was supposed to be open by now, but got delayed until next summer. For me it's out of the way, but I'll have to stop for a brisket sandwich, fudge, and souvenir crap
 
DVD said:
I know the city next door is getting one. It's on I-10 on your way into the Phoenix metro so a good place to stop. Lots of distribution centers and trucking in the area. It was supposed to be open by now, but got delayed until next summer. For me it's out of the way, but I'll have to stop for a brisket sandwich, fudge, and souvenir crap
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Surprisingly, at least to me; it's not a truck stop. They don't allow trucks.
 
DVD said:
For me it's out of the way, but I'll have to stop for a brisket sandwich, fudge, and souvenir crap
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I'm crass, but honestly because of all the talk about their astonishing restrooms and my affinity for George Costanza the end of your statement registered ---- differently to me.
:)
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
That being said the revenue they generate is insane. I assume as they become more common, this will start to decrease. I also have no clue what the site could be used for if a massive gas station no longer makes economic sense.
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I have been in several meetings with Buc-ee's folks and they really don't consider themselves a gas station. They are putting in a lot of charging stations here and they have a plan should they need more and gas is not as necessary. (but in all reality, we're all going to be relying on Big Oil for a long time). They make their money on all their merch and food. One thing they do try to do is include some local vendors in their retail portion of their store.
 
The Terminator said:
We need Buc-Ees in Upstate New York !!! It would be a smash hit here, as long as they keep away from the NYC/Downstate market.
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I don't see it coming anytime soon, unfortunately. Upstate NY and New England are kind of up and out of the way of the rest of the continental USA. The busiest cross-state highway is a toll road. The 81, 86, and 87 don't have the insane cross-country traffic levels of Interstates west of Cleveland.

The one place where I could see Buc-ees work is at the Walden Avenue exit on the 90 in Cheektowaga. 130,000 VTD, relatively evenly distributed throughout the day, with lots of Ontario, PA, OH, and out-of-state plates among the traffic. Like most communities in Erie County, though, Cheektowaga doesn't allow pylon signs. The only municipality that allows them is the City of Tonawanda (as opposed to the Town of Tonawanda), along the 290. I doubt Buc-ees will locate on a 3DI, even one with lots of ON plates among its 90K VTD. I don't see it in Niagara County, even though NF allows pylon signs; there's too much competition from the res.

My stop at a Buc-ees in happier times. 3:00 AM, somewhere between Nashville and Knoxville.

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Seriously, we can't even get a Raising Cane's, Dutch Bros., Hardee's, or Culver's.
 
Gedunker said:
Really, isn't this basically just a truck stop for cars?
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In a way yes. Their food is decent, some better than average. Lots of options. But as others have said, the restrooms are immaculate and the staff are Chick-Fil-A friendly. That still matters to a lot of people. The one in Florence is mobbed constantly and while it can be a bit of struggle to get in and out they move customers through the store and checkout very quickly and efficiently.
 
MD Planner said:
In a way yes. Their food is decent, some better than average. Lots of options. But as others have said, the restrooms are immaculate and the staff are Chick-Fil-A friendly. That still matters to a lot of people. The one in Florence is mobbed constantly and while it can be a bit of struggle to get in and out they move customers through the store and checkout very quickly and efficiently.
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A topic of discussion here has been the how they treat employees. They pay extremely well for the type of job around here. $18-22 an hour for basic jobs, $100K plus for management. You also get leave, potential 401K, and insurance. While there are a decent amount of people in our area making minimum wage, most fast food is paying $12-16 per hour now. Bucees has a very strict policy on tardiness, looking at cellphones, and friendliness. I've seen it described as you're late at 1 minute after and three offenses in a year is grounds for termination. There is a local facebook page of that is primarily devoted to this. The turnover is apparently fairly high and they don't worry about it because they pay better than most.

I still don't understand how they make money off all of their non-food items. After a while people have to get tired of beaver gear and cheap "live, laugh, love" signs.
 
Dan said:
Seriously, we can't even get a Raising Cane's, Dutch Bros., Hardee's, or Culver's.
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Raising Cane's in Buffalo would rock. Hardee's is the worst and Culver's can stay in Wisconsin where it belongs. SPoT Coffee would fight Dutch Bros. like a cat in a corner.
 
The Terminator said:
Raising Cane's in Buffalo would rock. Hardee's is the worst and Culver's can stay in Wisconsin where it belongs. SPoT Coffee would fight Dutch Bros. like a cat in a corner.
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We've got all that except Hardee's - they don't come out west. You're not missing anything. My daughter swears Cane's is the best chicken ever. It's good. Culver's is just another fancy burger. I'm sure you've got a fancy burger place somewhere. If not just cover your buns in butter. Dutch Bros is just another coffee spot. I hear it's sweeter than that Starbucks bitter crap that now just sells milkshakes with some coffee in it.
 
DVD said:
We've got all that except Hardee's - they don't come out west. You're not missing anything. My daughter swears Cane's is the best chicken ever. It's good. Culver's is just another fancy burger. I'm sure you've got a fancy burger place somewhere. If not just cover your buns in butter. Dutch Bros is just another coffee spot. I hear it's sweeter than that Starbucks bitter crap that now just sells milkshakes with some coffee in it.
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Surely you have Carl's Jr. Its the same. I think Raising Cane's will be here soon. We already have a saturated market of chicken finger places including chains and locals, but I'm sure we can handle one more. Dutch Bros is the next town over and Culvers is under construction.

Right now we're getting swamped with the drive-up coffee and "tea/nutrition" places.
 
DVD said:
We've got all that except Hardee's - they don't come out west. You're not missing anything. My daughter swears Cane's is the best chicken ever. It's good. Culver's is just another fancy burger. I'm sure you've got a fancy burger place somewhere. If not just cover your buns in butter. Dutch Bros is just another coffee spot. I hear it's sweeter than that Starbucks bitter crap that now just sells milkshakes with some coffee in it.
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Used to have Hardee's here in Utah. Karl Malone was a paid endorser at one time. We have Carl's Jr. which is owned by the same parent company as Hardee's so likely no need to have both in this area. Nearest is in Wyoming with 2 sites.
 
Dan said:
I don't see it coming anytime soon, unfortunately. Upstate NY and New England are kind of up and out of the way of the rest of the continental USA. The busiest cross-state highway is a toll road. The 81, 86, and 87 don't have the insane cross-country traffic levels of Interstates west of Cleveland...



Seriously, we can't even get a Raising Cane's, Dutch Bros., Hardee's, or Culver's.
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This is how I feel about Michigan. Even in the relatively busy and populous Detroit area, I think a lot of national chains skip us, especially those that like to pop-up close to freeways, because we're sort of isolated, geographically. We get very little cross-country or long haul traffic unless their starting point or destination is somewhere here in the state. Sure, there are folks and freight that cut across Southern Ontario and through Michigan but that is peanuts compared to east/west traffic through Ohio or Indiana or the north/south traffic on most of 95 or on 75 once you get south of the Ohio Turnpike.

That said, Culver's has been here for a while and is expanding like crazy and we did actually get a Raising Cane's that opened here in Metro Detroit back in the spring (and I think there are one or two more in the works). FWIW, I tried Raising Cane's when I was driving through SC a few years ago... I don't know that I'd drive 20 miles through Metro Detroit to get it again but I'd definitely consider it if I happened to be out that way for something.
 
We have one that will be opening not too far from us.

I stopped at one in SC about 2 years ago and I was not that impressed. Yea... it is a very big gas station that has a large hot bar in it. The sale of it was the only thing different than a Sheetz or Wawa.

We just had a Dutch Brothers open here, and yea, there was a heck of a line to get coffee when they opened. I will go to our locally owned coffee shop overlooking our Square over Dutch Brothers any day of the week.
 
I'm not a coffee drinker so I have no dog in the fight and I'm not saying Dutch Bros is bad. I'm sure it's 100 times better than Starbucks, but what makes it better than the 100 other super cool drive up coffee shacks in this place?
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
Need NY history lesson, please.
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Off-topic.

In NYS, local municipaal subdivisions include towns, villages, and cities. Towns are the basic municipal subdivision. A village is an overlay onto a town. Cities are independent from a town. They're all part of a county. New York, Queens, Kings, Bronx, and Richmond counties are coterminous with New York City. There's no unincorporated areas in NYS.

tonawandas.jpg


In suburban Buffalo, there's a sub-region of the Northtowns (northern suburbs) called "The Tonawandas". They comprise the mainland cities, towns, and villages between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. (The Town of Grand Island is "offshore".). There originally was just the towns of Tonawanda in Erie County, and Wheatfield in Niagara County. The Village of Kenmore formed at the south end of the Town of Tonawanda, and became "Buffalo's First Suburb". The Village of Tonawanda formed at part of the north end of the Town of Tonawanda, and eventually became the City of Tonawanda. The Village of North Tonawanda formed at the south end of the Town of Wheatfield, and eventually became the City of North Tonawanda. So, today, the Tonawandas include:
  • Town of Tonawanda (lower middle to upper middle class, with a large area of heavy industry at the western end, and the most md-century suburb of Buffalo.)
  • Village of Kenmore (lower middle to upper middle class; mostly pre-WWII development, a movie set suburb with a walkable main street.)
  • City of Tonawanda (working class to lower middle class; mix of pre- and post-WWII development.)
  • City of North Tonawanda (working class to lower middle class, mix of pre- and post-WWII development, with a surprisingly lively downtown.)
  • (maybe) Town of Wheatfield (middle class exurb and farms, part of Buffalo's garden belt.)
kenmore_lets_go.jpg


Back to Buc-ees. Here's where it would work in New York state, if they can deal with a shorter sign. Ground zero Cheektowaga. The only other place where I could possibly, maybe, long shot see a Buc-ees in NYS is along the 87, in Clifton Park, but even there they'd have to go with a shorter sign.

 
DVD said:
I'm sure you've got a fancy burger place somewhere.
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We just got Shake Shack a few months ago. The second largest metropolitan area in New York state, where the chain was founded.

Like I said before, Buffalo gets chains laaaaaaaate. REI just arrived, years after Rochester, and shortly after Ithaca. The site of the region's first Costco store is still just the scene of dirt piles and scattered construction equipment, two years after starting construction. Syracuse, of all places, is getting an IKEA, I shit you not. Syracuse.

Occasionally, we'll get something before Rochester does. Whole Foods, Primark, and Zara come to mind.

Then there's the chains that flat out said they won't come to NYS period, like Sheetz. I doubt Menards will ever be here, unless the state turns deep red.
 
Dan said:
Syracuse, of all places, is getting an IKEA, I shit you not. Syracuse.
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I've noticed a few odd retail choices lately, but IKEA made one that surprised me. They announced they were going to open a new store in Huntsville, AL that has about 400,000 in the region. Nashville has been begging for one for years and has an MSA of 2.5 million and is a little over an hour away. I'm sure there's some metric that trips for one and not the other.
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
I've noticed a few odd retail choices lately, but IKEA made one that surprised me. They announced they were going to open a new store in Huntsville, AL that has about 400,000 in the region. Nashville has been begging for one for years and has an MSA of 2.5 million and is a little over an hour away. I'm sure there's some metric that trips for one and not the other.
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Since it was just named Rocket City, it'll take off!!! :cool:
 
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