In defense of Buc-ee’s

Has the poster-boy of ‘Americana’ become the latest casualty of the culture wars?

Friends,

Call me crazy, but something feels a little suspicious.

Just a couple of weeks after America enjoyed all the feel-good factor of the World Cup, and after hundreds of thousands of tourists like myself spent weeks traveling around the country talking about all the incredible things we experienced, one of the poster boys of Americana ‘discovered’ by World Cup tourists has come under mainstream attack. That place is Buc-ee’s.

To note that this business was specifically celebrated by World Cup tourists in several viral videos, making international news headlines, seems important to this story.

If you’ve never heard of it, Buc-ee’s is a chain of enormous gas stations that began in Texas and has expanded across much of the American South, with more locations opening around the country. Calling it a gas station doesn’t really do it justice, although it does literally have hundreds of gas pumps at every location.

To foreign visitors, it’s one of those uniquely American places that you simply don’t find anywhere else. If you’ve followed my travels over the years, you’ll know I’ve stopped at plenty of them and I am a fan.

So it caught my attention this week when John Oliver dedicated part of his weekly show to going after Buc-ee’s. His criticism centred on the company’s history of aggressively defending its trademarks, and suing smaller businesses into submission if it believed they infringed its trademark name and its famous beaver mascot logo.

Now, I completely understand why people instinctively don’t like the idea of a huge company taking legal action against smaller businesses. Nobody likes the image of David versus Goliath, especially when Goliath is an ultra-wealthy corporation. But, equally, I couldn’t help thinking...

Isn’t this just standard corporate America?

Large American companies have been fiercely protecting their trademarks for decades. Whether it’s fast-food chains, supermarkets or global brands, this isn’t exactly unusual. It’s part of doing business in one of the most competitive consumer economies in the world. Whether Buc-ee’s has gone too far, I don’t know. But the idea of a successful American company protecting its brand isn’t exactly groundbreaking.

John Oliver unveiled his own parody version of the Buc-ee’s mascot and challenged the company to sue him. It made for funny television and will resonate with his audience. Of course, the company will not sue him because what he has produced falls under the protection of parody.

Maybe it’s nothing, and maybe it’s simply a comedy show doing what comedy shows do. Or maybe it’s another example of how almost everything now seems destined to become political.

These feelings were solidified after I posted about Buc-ee’s in several videos. A number of people replied saying Buc-ee’s, in their words, is “MAGA-coded” - whatever the heck that means.

As someone who’s spent countless hours inside Buc-ee’s stores, I’ve never once felt politics enter the experience. Nobody has pushed politics on me, nobody has tried to sell me an ideology and nobody has made me feel unwelcome. I’ve simply experienced a brilliant place to stop while on long American road trips.

America in a box

To me, Buc-ee’s is America in a box. It’s bright, colourful and fun. It’s unapologetically American. The merchandise is everywhere, the food is excellent and the brisket sandwiches 100% deserve the hype. The bathrooms are probably the cleanest you’ll ever find at a roadside stop.

And when you’ve been driving for hours across America, it’s exactly the sort of place you hope appears on the next exit sign. It’s no surprise tourists love it, and content creators make videos about it. It’s also no surprise the company has become enormously successful.

Something else struck me on my most recent trip: outside one Buc-ee’s was a recruitment board advertising salaries. I genuinely couldn’t believe what I was reading. Store managers can reportedly earn more than $200,000 a year. Coming from the UK, where even managers of large retail stores would earn a fraction of that, it was astonishing. Again, that’s another reason Buc-ee’s stands out.

Now, to be fair, if you research the company, you’ll find the controversies. There have been disputes over environmental issues surrounding some developments - in Colorado, for example - and there have been the aforementioned trademark lawsuits.

To be frank though, if you want to take a political stand on businesses out there based on which politicians they fund, or their environmental credentials, there would be nowhere left to shop or enjoy.

Are we just sucking the fun out of everything based on culture wars? Next I’ll be told not to shop at Bass Pro.

That’s not to say I’m ignorant, but politics is messy and certainly isn’t as black and white as people try to make out. I just don’t think we should put everything, or everyone, in neat little boxes, which only serves to divide.

I don’t come to America looking for politics, but because I love travelling here and I love meeting Americans of all kinds. I also love discovering little (or large, in this case) pieces of Americana that simply don’t exist back home.

As a visitor, Buc-ee’s is one of the most enjoyable roadside stops I’ve ever experienced anywhere in the world. Maybe Americans see it differently from the way foreign visitors do, so I’d genuinely love to know your opinions in the comments below.

I’ve included one of my Buc-ee’s videos below if you’d like to see what all the fuss is about.

Slainte,

Shaun