Welcome to Buc-ee's

we're a nation on the go no time to spare which explains why convenience stores can be so convenient and for luke burbank if you need it to go you need to go to bucky's we all know that feeling you're out on the open road your gas tank is empty but your bladder's full well in texas a lot of folks in this predicament look for this cartoon beaver the smiling mascot of buckies [Music] it's a gas station chain beloved by road trippers for its award-winning bathrooms and truly texas sized scale 54 000 square feet of homemade fudge a beef jerky bar and whatever this is you think that's big enough yeah i think she'll like that and they put that beaver on just about anything have a good one there we go awesome perhaps not since mickey mouse has a cartoon rodent captured the hearts off we're going to be late for school and crucially the dollars of so many we love going to buckies including customers like alex and yasmine abreu i mean would you be as excited about a place if this was just called travel stop stop for the beaver i haven't thought about it but probably not yeah it's true these are boots that i had made with the bucky's logo on it had them made right here in in texas that's arch beaver applin the third bucky's founder and ceo and yes he really does go by beaver beaver was my nickname my mom named me that when i was born bucky beaver space guard russia brush there was a cartoon character way back really before my time [Music] a toothpaste commercial name was bucky bieber and so this fella always called me bucky beaver growing up applin opened the first buckies in 1982 as a regular-sized convenience store but it wasn't until 2003 that he got the idea to build the mother of all gas stations these days bucky's has 41 travel centers throughout the south and boasts two world records for the world's largest gas station and the world's longest car wash whoa technical i haven't seen that before but the most popular attraction at bucky's might be its restrooms voted the best bathrooms in the nation back in 2012. lots of space tile floor to ceiling well lit applin designed the restrooms himself this is very spacious very private if the bathrooms are the number one and number two reasons for going to bucky's the number three might be this chopped brisket on the board oh look at that in 2017 bucky's hired eight-time world barbecue champion randy pauly as its director of barbecue oh wow i got a name tag and everything we're gonna do this ride how'd i look wait a minute wait wait a minute we're gonna have to get a little texas on you okay oh yeah there we go look at these bad boys it's polly's job to teach new hires how to break down a brisket so these are gonna be logs that we're gonna chop up and what we do is we do front to back x pattern and you'll be good okay you're at the helm so you're the lead i got fresh chopped brisket on the board [Applause] in this case it was it turns out actually my first rodeo that looks how was that bob fantastic all right so this is one of your favorites yep after almost 40 years in business that is wonderful thank you beaver applein and his very private very camera shy business partner a guy named don wasik still owned 100 percent of bucky's it wouldn't change the experience no investors no board of directors and that's exactly how they want it fresh than this thank you yeah it allows us total independence to do what we think is the best and we don't have to answer to maybe a suggestion of how could we cut costs it's probably one reason why the starting wage for employees at this gas station how are you today it's 15 an hour all right your total is going to be 1921. with benefits did you ever have a moment where you thought wow i made it it happened my dad i could always tell he had a little bit of concern are you okay you sure are building these big this went on many many years but when i saw in my dad's eyes that he wasn't concerned anymore and he felt like we had made it then i think that would be my moment aplin is now taking bucky's national with six travel centers outside of texas and plans for many more he's betting this unapologetically texas institution can work beyond the borders of the lone star state and he could be right after all when you've got to go you've got to go and there just might be a cartoon beaver guiding the way

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 1,353,408

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, bucees, food, texas, chain, convenience store, lone star state, beaver

Id: XbV4XWpfMyE

Length: 6min 4sec (364 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 30 2022