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Buc-ee’s will open its first Missouri location next month.
The 53,000-square-foot travel center at 3284 N. Mulroy Road in Springfield, Missouri, will have its grand opening on Dec. 11, with the doors opening at 6 a.m. and a ribbon cutting at 11 a.m.
The Texas-based chain is known for its giant convenience stores, which offer Texas barbecue, fudge, kolaches, “Beaver nuggets," jerky and fresh pastries. The Springfield travel center will offer 120 fueling stations and employ about 200 people, the company said in an announcement.
"Springfield is rich with history that attracts travelers from all across the country and we are honored to be opening our first store in the birthplace of Route 66,” Stan Beard, Buc-ee’s director of real estate, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to bring Buc-ee’s to the community and treat our road-trippers to the hospitality that Missouri is known for.”
Buc-ee's out-of-state expansion
Buc-ee's has opened, started building or announced several other locations across multiple states in recent years.
Buc-ee’s opened its first out-of-state location in 2019 in Robertsdale, Alabama, and has since expanded to Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Tennessee as well. The company currently has 46 stores, most of which are in Texas. Buc-ee's now has four travel centers in Alabama, two in Florida, two in Georgia and two in Tennessee. The company's first Kentucky location opened in April 2022, and its first South Carolina travel center opened in May.
Buc-ee's also announced the development of its first store in Mississippi in 2022 and proposed its first Wisconsin location in early 2023.
Meanwhile, Buc-ee's isn't done expanding into new states.
Most recently, plans were revealed in August for a 75,000-square-foot Buc-ee’s convenience store and fueling center in Huber Heights, a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. It would be the company's first location in the Buckeye State.
In June, Buc-ee's made its Virginia entrance official, acquiring 27.6 acres along Interstate 64 roughly 20 miles east of Richmond, the Washington Business Journal reported. The 74,000-square-foot store was announced in March. The company plans to have a total of four stores in the commonwealth, including at least one between Richmond and Greater Washington, per the WBJ.
Buc-ee's also has filed preliminary site plans and a rezoning request for its first North Carolina location, Triad Business Journal reported June 30. The 32.5-acre site would be in Mebane along Interstate 40/85 at the southwest quadrant at the exit onto Trollingwood-Hawfields Road. The store would be 75,440 square feet, just slightly larger than the store the company has under construction in Luling, Texas.
But this isn't the company’s first try at building along the central North Carolina interstate route. Buc-ee's sought to build in 2020 east of Mebane in the northern Orange County community of Efland on a site with room for other development. Residents raised environmental concerns, including effects on the Eno River watershed, and county commissioners sought conditions to which the company would not agree.
Last month, Buc-ee’s also called off its plans for a location in Clarksville, Tennessee, which could have been the company's fourth location in the state.
Within Texas, Buc-ee's most recently broke ground on its Amarillo location — its first within the Texas Panhandle — on Oct. 26.
At 74,000 square feet, the Amarillo location will be the same size as the travel center in Sevierville, Tennessee. That location, which opened in June, is the largest Buc-ee's thus far.
However, the title of largest Buc-ee's ever will soon return to Texas when the company opens its new store in Luling. The 75,000-square-foot Luling project, which broke ground in November, just beats the location under construction in Hillsboro, Texas, as well as the first Colorado Buc-ee's, which is also under construction.
In January, the Murfreesboro Planning Commission approved the right-of-way abandonments for a Buc-ee’s in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the Murfreesboro Post reported at the time. Plan documents call for a roughly 76,000-square-foot store near Elam Road, Joe B. Jackson Parkway and I-24, per the Post. In December 2022, the company's general counsel confirmed to Tennessee TV station WKRN News 2 that Buc-ee's plans to begin construction in Murfreesboro in the fourth quarter of 2023.
However, the company is also planning another store in Florida that could be even larger, at 80,000 square feet.
Here's the latest list of store openings Buc-ee's has planned:
The company notes that the opening dates are subject to change. Previously, the list included the company's location in Harrison County, Mississippi, opening in 2025 and a store in Anderson, South Carolina, opening in 2026.
Buc-ee's — known for huge floor plans and a high number of gas pumps and toilets — was founded in 1982 in Lake Jackson, south of Houston. Although Buc-ee's is still partially based in Lake Jackson, the company moved parts of its headquarters to Pearland in 2015 and inked a lease in 2018 in Austin's Firmspace, a luxury coworking startup that caters to executives.
