Should the Texas Institution That is Buc-ee’s Come to San Angelo?

Get our free mobile app

I saw a couple of things this past weekend that got me thinking about this subject so I decided I would blog about it this morning.

When I was at Christmas at Old Fort Concho, I saw a couple wearing matching Buc-ee's shirts. And while I was walking around my neighborhood, I saw an "I Love Buc-ee's" window sticker on the back of a truck.

As we all know, Buc-ee's is a Texas institution much like Whataburger in the Lone Star state. You see people flashing Whataburger swag just like you see people promoting Buc-ee's here in San Angelo. But while we have Whataburger’s here, we don't have Buc-ee's.

Should Buc-ee's come to San Angelo?

When I lived back in the eastern part of Texas, I saw lots of Buc-ee's. They have one just before you get to Temple heading south on I-35. They have what was at one point the largest gas station in the world on the north end of New Braunfels. I've also been to one on I-10 in Luling and in Gonzales they have a "mini" Buc-ee's in town.

But if you Google a map of locations for Buc-ee's, you notice that there basically aren't any Buc-ee's west of Interstate 35. I wonder why Buc-ee's only serves half of the state. What do they have against West Texas?

Out here in San Angelo, we have plenty of Stripes gas stations. Stripes is a Texas-based convenience store like Buc-ee's. But you don't see people wearing Stripes shirts or sporting Stripes bumper stickers, do you? Maybe Buc-ee's is being respectful or business-savvy and they recognize Stripes has a grip on this market and they might not want to butt in here.

Another reason Buc-ee's might not be out here in San Angelo is you typically see Buc-ee's stores along interstates, and we currently don't have one in San Angelo. We are supposed to be getting an interstate, but we might have to wait decades for that. So, maybe it could be years before Buc-ee's opens shop here in San Angelo.