The Ugly Truth About Buc-ee's

oh in september of 2019 governor ron desantis showed up to a gas station groundbreaking in daytona beach many of us were surprised and asked the question what's the big deal with buckies well if you ask anyone with ties to texas or someone who has been to a bucky's travel center they're likely to say it is worth the hype this is like if you were in the middle of a full-on cocaine binge well someone came up to you and said dude i want you to make me the ultimate gas station [Music] bucky's was started in texas so they do brisket right we are giving you competition grade right here we are bringing it to consumer i'm telling you what we're winning with the trophies and all that is right here for you to grab barbecue beef jerky homemade fudge beaver nuggets out of all the things that make bucky stand out from the rest nothing quite compares to their logo this beaver is so precious to the company that they have been known to sue other businesses that even come close to resembling it and when i say close well you be the judge [Music] the bucky's beaver is fighting an alligator bucky's claims the cartoon alligator wearing a cowboy hat is too similar to its logo of a beaver wearing a baseball cap this logo has helped the company create an unprecedented brand for their industry so where did this beaver come from our story begins 70 years ago with the character who you might just call the original bucky beaver [Music] bucky was the renowned mascot for ipanna toothpaste back in the 1950s the characters popularity grew with regular appearances in the saturday morning cartoon time slot the beaver even had a cameo in the movie greece archaplin the creator of buckies was nicknamed beaver as a child and one of his father's colleagues called him bucky beaver after the ipana toothpaste adds additionally arch had a beloved hunting dog growing up who was named you guessed it buck when it came time for arch to open his first convenience store on july 28 1982 he knew exactly what he was going to call it soon after arch partnered with another convenience store owner in the area don wasik the duo opened another store in 1985 and then another one soon after that and another after that and within 20 years they had opened 20 stores bucky's growth was consistent but if you had walked into one of these 20 stores you might not have thought twice about it they made subtle improvements but nothing quite differentiated the bucky stores from their competitors that is until 2003 when they opened a store in luling texas store was different and it resembled what most bucky's fans would recognize today the luling store was located directly off an interstate and designed for long-distance travelers because this store was bigger aplin didn't want customers to confuse it with a truck stop so he banned 18 wheelers altogether this store also started selling bucky's t-shirts and a strange new snack a caramel covered puff that the company most appropriately called beaver nuggets after the success of the luling store applein recruited the help of houston advertiser lou congelio can helio helped develop a key selling point for the company texas has 79 000 miles of highway so when the billboard says you can hold it people really do we saw the sign here for 44 miles i waited inside this bucky's bathroom tim morales and his maintenance team ensure that each one of their 83 stalls is not just cleaned but bucky's cleaning 24 hours there's somebody in here at all times yes sir over the next few years aplin and waesek opened two new big stores and with this increase in real estate came an increase in revenue in 2001 the entire sales for the company totaled 63 million dollars in 2006 the sales increased to 202 million dollars and in 2015 the company brought in just shy of a billion dollars and since then applein and wasick have opened many more 50 000 square foot stores but not all of them have been happily welcomed residents of denton were concerned and started a campaign to stop a new buckies set to be built in their city all of your buckets are out on major freeways in the middle of nowhere not right around a major quiet residential neighborhood why why did you pick this up all of them are not in the middle of nowhere temples in the middle of town i'm sorry i grew up the temple that that is not in the middle of town that is not your residential area bucky's ended up prevailing in denton but it didn't stop there arch and waysec began purchasing land throughout the southeast and on january 21st 2019 they opened a new 53 000 square foot store in robertsdale alabama the first buckies opened outside of texas and yet again bucky's didn't receive the warmest welcome in total the bucky's chain has 34 locations this is the first one outside of the lone star state it's only been open for about two weeks and it's already being sued in the following years bucky's continued to expand outside of texas with another store in alabama one in georgia and two in florida today bucky's has 39 stores in operation compare that to 7-eleven with a nationwide store count of nearly 12 000 but if you had the option to stop at a bucky's or a 7-eleven which one would you choose bucky's doesn't measure its success with the amount of stores they have they measure it by the loyalty of their customers the cleanliness of their restrooms and most importantly the strength of their brand a cartoon beaver in a baseball cap you

Channel: Zack D. Films

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Id: pd8R4lEI3AY

Length: 7min 48sec (468 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 08 2021