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Buc-ee's and The Infinite American Spirit
Pirate Wires ^ | 27 August 2025 | G B Rango

Posted on 08/31/2025 10:17:37 AM PDT by Rummyfan

...how a gas station megachain with palatial bathrooms, beef jerky walls, and neverending merchandise became a cultish American spectacle...

Roadtripping through the South is an experience that I associate with empty Arizona cans, endless stretches of interstate, Spotify, the occasional Hostess Zinger, and my compulsive noticing and reading-out-loud of every passing billboard. After a couple hundred such noticings of these advertising relics, the thematic frequent fliers become apparent: ALL-CAPS fireworks-warehouse placements, PSAs of upcoming generic gas-and-food oases, phone numbers promising to chastise you out of eternal damnation (often abortion-adjacent), anti-balding serum promotions with “before and after” pictures of hairless men growing terribly thin-haired, and the occasional reminder that sex shops selling pornographic DVDs remain standing in valiant defiance of inexorable digital apocalypse.

While occasionally mountebankish, many of these billboard advertisements are imbued with the associative charm of small town America and “the open road.” Their transparent lack of persuasive power makes them endearing. They’re real, physical, localized. They feel more like “Small Business” than “Big Business.” There is something about personability and warmth that is almost impossible to scale....

There is one billboard, however, that seems to gleam and rise spiritually above its baser counterparts. Its bolded yellow letters sit atop a black background. Below, the face of a 1950s-esque cartoon beaver, plastered with a manic bucktoothed grin, looks up and to the right in delirious optimism. “TOP TWO REASONS TO STOP: #1 AND #2,” the sign reads. “BUC-EE’s, 42 MILES.” You, the hypothetical roadtripper and Buc-ee’s uninitiate, are intrigued by its aura and figure that this place is probably as good as any for handling the necessary road trip action items (refueling, assorted bathroom activities, meandering and leg-stretching, the excessive purchasing of snacks, and so on).

(Excerpt) Read more at piratewires.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: bucees

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1 posted on 08/31/2025 10:17:37 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan
Buc-ee’s, a near-highway megachurch and pilgrimage destination for the uniquely American blend of comfort, commerce, spectacle, and hometown folksiness, stands unrivaled. It singlehandedly creates family memories, feeds our most desperate attempts to fill various God-shaped and antisocially created holes, raises up some of our most disavowed and disaffected, hooks us on sugar and stupid white-labeled landfill filler, and puts smiles on millions upon millions of traveling American faces. Paradoxical cultural phenomenon, beloved landmark, bona fide megastore, and bearer of the American spirit, I salute you.
2 posted on 08/31/2025 10:18:56 AM PDT by Rummyfan ( In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.👨 )
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To: Rummyfan

Why didn’t Cracker Barrel C suite get together and take a lesson? They sold out that’s why. They tanked their stock


3 posted on 08/31/2025 10:24:55 AM PDT by stanne (Because they were mesmerized by Obama, the man for whom this was named, whose name they left out of )
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To: Rummyfan

The Buc-ee’s in Katy, Tx is awesome!


4 posted on 08/31/2025 10:25:49 AM PDT by sauropod
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To: sauropod

Likewise, Johnstown, Colorado.


5 posted on 08/31/2025 10:32:42 AM PDT by Trumpet 1 (US Constitution is my guide.)
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To: stanne
Why didn’t Cracker Barrel C suite get together and take a lesson? They sold out that’s why. They tanked their stock

BlackRock is your answer.

6 posted on 08/31/2025 10:33:51 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of racism, anger, hate and violence.)
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To: Rummyfan

They might put a Buc-ees in Meridian, Idaho. Idaho is just Texas with colder weather and no funny accents anyway, right?


7 posted on 08/31/2025 10:35:28 AM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

They are the next target bank it. Buccee’s better watch their flank. They are exactly who the left targets for destruction.


8 posted on 08/31/2025 10:38:10 AM PDT by iamgalt
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To: Rummyfan

Good place to buy gas and a bathroom break. That’s about it.


9 posted on 08/31/2025 10:38:53 AM PDT by TTFlyer (Lenin: that by the infliction of terror, a well-organized minority can conquer a nation.)
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To: Rummyfan

The infinite line to get in and out.


10 posted on 08/31/2025 10:39:43 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If Hitler were alive today and criticized Trump, would he still be Hitler?)
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To: Trumpet 1

Is that the place with cinnamon rolls?

They are awesome.


11 posted on 08/31/2025 10:46:36 AM PDT by NEWwoman (God Bless America)
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To: sauropod

If only their food was good. Those sandwiches suck! I was so excited to get one that I drove two hours with family for one. Awful and expensive!


12 posted on 08/31/2025 10:52:42 AM PDT by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
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To: Rummyfan

Buc-ee’s on I95 just outside St. Augustine is pretty awesome. 60,000sf of convenience store! Serves some of th best brisket for miles around. Just be careful when you buy a bag of Buc-ee nuggets, once you start eating them it’s not possible to stop. Just my $.02.


13 posted on 08/31/2025 10:54:28 AM PDT by Afterguard (Deplorable, garbage me. Trump is a threat to bureaucracy.)
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To: iamgalt
Buccee’s better watch their flank. They are exactly who the left targets for destruction.

Not so fast. The leftists tried to cancel In and Out burgers for their religious messages on their drink cups and it was a spectacular failure.

14 posted on 08/31/2025 10:54:44 AM PDT by broken_clock (Go Trump! Prayers answered!)
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To: Trumpet 1

I live in CA and visit my son and his family in Fort Collins. I’ve been to that store several times and now make a point of stopping there on my way to FC from Denver


15 posted on 08/31/2025 10:56:19 AM PDT by j.havenfarm (24 years on Free Republic, 12/10/24! More than 10,500 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: Afterguard

See my no. 15. I still have beaver nuggets (I call them beaver dropping) from my last visit!


16 posted on 08/31/2025 10:58:06 AM PDT by j.havenfarm (24 years on Free Republic, 12/10/24! More than 10,500 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: j.havenfarm

17 posted on 08/31/2025 11:05:57 AM PDT by Bratch
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To: Rummyfan

Their brisket is wonderful


18 posted on 08/31/2025 11:16:25 AM PDT by FatherofFive (We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor)
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To: All
Texas Buc-ee's BBQ


19 posted on 08/31/2025 11:35:00 AM PDT by Liz (May you be in Heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead (Irish blessing))
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To: Disambiguator

What “funny accents” are all y’all talking about?


20 posted on 08/31/2025 11:38:00 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Is this damn country so hard up for Judges that we have to hire Sparkle Sookananan from Trinidad?)
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