As many of you likely know, school just started recently (a week earlier than usual unfortunately) which means I've been crammed down the throat with work like a foie gras goose at this point.
Making the time to write a full blog post is obviously a tough tussle with such a schedule, so I thought I'd make do with a quaint summer experience of mine. Enjoy!
Back during August, I went on a semi-week long road trip to Indiana (and a semi-week long road trip back).
But most importantly, it allowed me the pleasure of experiencing quite possibly the most American entity in existence from sea to shining sea- Buc-ee's.
Imagine, if you will, a Walmart big box store, morphed with an American 7-Eleven/Wawa gas station, with Texas BBQ, and the pure essence of American consumerism/capitalism, with everything being about 50% larger.
If you combine all of those into the melting pot, you get Buc-ee's: a mega gas-station/fast food/big box store hybrid that's truly mind blowing for anyone who hasn't experienced it.
Here's a fun Babylon Bee video about it too- click here
The first thing to note about Buc-ee's is the size- the gas station itself (and the store inside) is MASSIVE. The place is literally designed to have as much "stuff" to buy as possible.
The bathrooms are also extremely clean- literal night and day sanitation levels compared to your average 7-Eleven.
Their main customer base are those driving on Interstate highways (who obviously need a place to use the restroom), so it'd make sense why there's always someone cleaning the place 24/7
There's also neat little red/green lights that tell you if a stall is occupied or not. A true "why didn't I think of that earlier" moment.
There's also just so much to BUY. Food, drinks, snacks, merchandise, plushies, you name it.
HALF the store is literally dedicated just for selling Buc-ee's branded shirts, shoes, pajamas, hoodies, board games, etc. (not even food/drinks). Pure American consumerism dialed up to 11, at it's glorious peak
The average store probably has a higher GDP than a small island country at this point.
Another thing is the branding- Bucky the Beaver is basically the gas station's form of Jesus Christ. You'll find plushies of him all over the place, and every Buc-ee's comes with a custom made truck filled to the brim with goodies.
(It just so happened the child on the left photobombed my picture, but it does give an amazing sense of scale-)
But what I love about Buc-ee's the most is that it is quite literally a glorious manifestation of all things America. Such a holy sanctuary as this would physically not be able to exist in any other country, much less California.
It's quite literally impossible to walk in and walk out without spending at least 30 dollars on smoked brisket and Bu-cee's souvenir merchandise.
It is pure excess, capitalism, and consumer branding at its finest.
In fact, I would argue an excellent mode for American assimilation for illegal immigrants at this point is to force them spend a week eating and shopping at Buc-ee's. (Not serious of course, but it'd be pretty funny if ICE actually implemented that)
Regardless, I'd highly recommend to visit at some point. You'll typically find them right next to the interstate highways (truckers are a large customer base).
The southernmost Buc-ee's is just above Daytona Beach, and locations are sporadically found up north from there.
One last note- at the time of writing this, it just so happens the Cracker Barrel has "rebranded" themselves (another word for corporate soulless oversimplification/modernization) through their "fresh" new logo and store remodels, taking away quite literally everything that made them special.
Although in a sense, I'd argue the corporate megastore part does technically apply to Buc-ee's in some aspects, unlike the Cracker Barrel rebrand, Bu-cee's (and its beaver) still have a certain soul to them.
So a message to Bucky the Beaver- please don't Cracker Barrel yourself. :)
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Very interesting, I like it!
ReplyDeleteOng, please don’t change we love you ❤️
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