Why Is Everyone In Texas Obsessed With This Beaver?

Texas is big. Like, really big. You can fit the 15 smallest U.S. states inside of Texas big

Bigger than every European country big. The DFW airport is bigger than the entire island of

Manhattan big. When you're in Texas, you don't measure distance by miles, but by how many hours

it'll take you to drive there. And on those drives, you'll likely run into this beaver

This is Buc-ee's. And everyone in Texas pretty much agrees that it is the place to stop on any road trip

But why is a gas station so important to Texans? And why does everyone have a picture with this beaver

To answer that, we have to go back to the beginning. All the way to 1982, when Arch Beaver Applin III opened his first gas station in Lake Jackson, Texas

With a degree in construction sciences, the plan was to follow in his father's footsteps and become a builder

But instead, his inspiration came from his grandparents, Arch and May Applin Sr.

who ran a general mercantile store in Louisiana when Beaver was a kid

He'd spent his summers growing up working at that shop, and at 23, he was ready for a store of his own

When deciding on a name, he wanted it to be friendly and inviting. Arch was nicknamed Beaver ever since he was a kid, and he wanted the mascot to be based off the old Ipana toothpaste Bucky Beaver cartoons

You know, the same Bucky Beaver cartoon sung by Jan in the movie Grease

He also had a favorite hunting dog named Buck And just 10 minutes away the local high school was the Buccaneers So naming the store Buc just made sense

Like most new business, expansion was slow. Change was incremental. Beaver grew Buc-ee's store by store

Partnering with another local convenience store owner, Don Wasick, in 1985. Every step of the way, they tried to make their stores a little bit better

Slightly bigger, a little nicer, more homey. or in Buc-ee's corporate lingo, clean, friendly, and in stock

Two stores turned into three, and then five, and then two decades later

they had 20 Buc-ee's stores in the Houston area. The co-owners never took outside investment, so the expansion was slow and deliberate

This continued until the mid-2000s, when what we know as the current Buc-ee's were created

They went from being bigger-than-average gas stations found in town to travel centers on busy interstates appealing to long-distance drivers

For many Texans, their first interaction with Buc-ee's was through billboards that would draw you in from hundreds of miles away

The billboards were unique and funny to dads and made driving a busy interstate a little more bearable

So, of course you stopped. But once people stopped, they noticed there was something different about this place

It's not just about a cute beaver logo on t-shirts and baseball caps

This place was unique. It all comes back to their motto, clean, friendly, and in stock

If we break this down, we can see what really makes Buc-ee special

The first thing anyone notices about a Buc-ee's is its size. It is big. Bigger than big

Today's Buc-ee's are built between 50,000 and 70,000 square feet. For reference, a typical convenience store is about 2,500 square feet

You can fit two whole Whole Foods inside a Buc-ee's. Being big meant stocking just about everything

There are over 100 gas pumps, 1 parking spaces and 80 soda dispensers so there no line for anything How could that be necessary and maybe most importantly with over 70 toilets and urinals there no waiting when you have to

go to bucky's being in stock also means being on demand which brings us to the next part of

their motto friendly being friendly is important to texans heck the name texas or texas comes from

from the Caddo Native American language and means friends. You don't fake friendly in Texas

And if there's one way to make fast friends in the Lone Star State, it's through food

Bucky's serves Texan favorites all made in house. Beef brisket barbecue, 13 varieties of beef jerky

and fresh baked kolaches. Or klobosniks, but that's a video for another time

This isn't your typical hot dog on a roll or gas station meal. This food is made hot and fresh all day long

And friendliness isn't just about the products they sell, but it's also expected from their employees

They have a long list of rules for their staff. Everything from the basics of no sitting on the job and no use of cell phones to strict clothing and grooming standards

So how does a gas station find the best employees in a small town

By paying them $14 an hour with three weeks PTO and a 401k

While other convenience stores start their employees out at minimum wage, Buc-ee's is willing to pay almost double for the best

Which brings us to the biggest difference between Bucky's and any other travel station

It's clean. There's a specific kind of worry you experience as you travel on a long road trip and feel the urge to go build up inside of you

Gas station bathrooms typically elicit images of dimly lit closets outside and behind the store

The kind where you have to ask the attendant behind the counter for the key. Ugh

Ugh. Just thinking about gas station bathrooms are making me sweat. The bathrooms at Bucky's are cleaned 24 hours a day

seven days a week by a staffer who's on site at all times

If you're going to be in the car for a long time, it reassuring to know that there a place that you can stop that will be clean In fact the cleanliness of their bathrooms has become their biggest advertiser When you walk in for the first time you speechless You never want to stop at another gas station restroom again This even translates to their advertising

The top two reasons to visit Bucky's, number one and number two. So it all adds up to why Texans are kind of obsessed. But don't just take their word for it

Bucky's has been named country's best gas station by GasBuddy. Centos called it America's best

restroom. It holds the Guinness World Record for longest car wash. And even Bon Appetit

the fancy New York food people, named it America's best rest stop. It means that a trip to Bucky's

is more of an experience than just a pit stop. It's closer to going to Disney World than stopping

at a 7-Eleven. So you buy a souvenir, maybe a hoodie or a stuffed beaver. And of course you

take a picture with the mascot or statue. It's to show you've been there. You've experienced it

All of this increases the cult following of Buc-ee's. Traveling can be hard for a lot of people

What Buc-ee's does well is make it a little bit easier. Once you know there's a Buc-ee's ahead, you'll think about beaver nuggets and count down the

billboards as you get closer and closer. And you'll hold it, knowing there's a clean restroom waiting for you

So, the next time you're driving through Texas, make sure to take the exit with the

giant beaver on the billboard and get a true Everything's Bigger in Texas experience

If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe. And in the comments below, let us know what are your favorite road trip snacks

When I'm on a road trip, I want a root beer and one of those six pack of donuts

And of course, check out BrightTrip for online courses for travelers. BrightTrip makes courses to help you travel smarter

There are skills-based courses like how to vlog and location-based courses on places like

Tokyo and London. If you're unsure where to start, you can always try one of our free courses like Camping 101

Packing 101, or a course all about birding