Buc-ee’s looks across border to Louisiana
Location in Baton Rouge likely to offer alligator and boudin
Buc-ee’s, the megaconvenience store chain flagged by a smiling beaver that has become a piece of roadside lore, will open its first location outside of Texas in Baton Rouge.
The first Buc-ee’s outside Texas promises lagniappe, a little bonus, worthy of its Louisiana locale.
“It’s going to look like what we build, and it’s going to feel like what we build,” co-owner Beaver Aplin said this week. But in addition to the Beaver Nuggets and other proprietary snack foods such as fudge or jerky, Aplin said, customers should expect “Louisiana flair” with items like alligator, boudin and cracklins.
A 15-acre tract along Interstate 12 in Baton Rouge will soon get one of the Buc-ee’s mega-convenience stores. The chain known for its buck-toothed mascot, a cartoon beaver, has grown to 31 locations since the first one opened in 1982.
The store could also be the first of others in Louisiana and elsewhere as the Lake Jackson-based chain explores markets beyond Texas’ borders.
Exact plans are not yet available, but Aplin said Buc-ee’s has the Baton Rouge property under contract, and the company is working with the owner and the city. The store will likely be a 50,000- to 60,000-square-foot travel center, similar to ones in Baytown, Texas City or Madisonville. It will feature sprawling bays of fuel islands and expanded food and other items for sale.
“We think Louisiana will be a great market, and I look forward to being there,” Aplin said.
The Baton Rouge Buc-ee’s will be part of a 52-acre mixeduse development, said Charlie Colvin of Beau Box Commercial Real Estate, the brokerage firm representing the property sellers. A recreational vehicle retailer plans to open a sales lot there, and a developer plans to build a new on-ramp and traffic signal improvements.
Baton Rouge, the state capi-
tal, also is the seat of Louisiana’s most populated parish.
The area’s rapid suburban growth continues to fuel retail development. The new Buc-ee’s would be a first-of-its-kind establishment there, Colvin said.
At the junction of Interstates 10 and 12, which take traffic from the Atlantic Coast toward Texas and points westward, Baton Rouge is the ideal market to capture travelers and build a local consumer base, Aplin said.
Many Louisianians, through traveling or living in Texas, have been exposed to the Buc-ee’s brand, said Kelli Hollinger, director of the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University.
“Buc-ee’s has a cult following,” Hollinger said. “You’re not just excited to go to Buc-ee’s, they’re part of the travel experience itself.”
Hollinger said tapping into Louisiana’s food culture should further help the brand there.
Added marketing professor Betsy Gelb of the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston: “You always want to be putting a toe in a state where there are people who know you.”
General counsel Jeff Nadalo said Buc-ee’s continues “looking at all opportunities in Texas and outside of Texas.”
Louisiana is the current focus, Aplin said, with other sites, including along the I-10 corridor, under consideration. None of those projects is far enough along to announce, he added.
Buc-ee’s has made its name with oversize convenience stores, some of which carry sporting goods and hunting supplies, in addition to extensive fuel islands. They make an immediate impact, said Wharton Mayor Domingo Montalvo, who said he gets calls from mayors and economic developers across Texas asking for advice on getting a Bucee’s.
Since opening along U.S. 59 at FM 102 in Wharton seven years ago, Montalvo said, the company pushed other convenience stores to spruce up and sparked more gasoline price competition. Mostly, he said, it’s generating a trickle of travelers to wander a bit into town.
“People buzzed by on U.S. 59 going down to their destinations, and now we’re making them stop,” Montalvo said. “That’s something that we’ve always wanted to have, and that’s why we felt very confident with putting a Bucee’s there.”