Everyone wants a Buc-ee’s, right? Not exactly. Why some are trying to block the beaver

To many Texans, Buc-ee’s is more of an experience than a gas station and convenience store.

Fans say a trip to Buc-ee’s is like a treasure hunt that includes “amazing” bathrooms (touted as the “world’s cleanest”), fresh barbecue, roasting pecans, vast walls of jerky and candy, unique merchandise and a picture with the beaver mascot.

But as the Texas-based company aggressively expands across the nation, not every community it picks for a new travel center has welcomed the beloved beaver with open arms. Buc-ee’s likes to build along mostly rural stretches of highways that are strategically between bigger cities. This has led to complaints in some places over the prospect of increased traffic, noise and pollution, and the fear of even more development that a Buc-ee’s can spawn.

As difficult as it might be for many Texans to fathom, opponents in other states say Buc-ee’s is, well, just too big.

In central North Carolina, where Buc-ee’s is proposing a travel center along Interstate 40 between Durham and Greensboro, an Elon University psychology professor called the mega-stores “consumerism at its worst.”

While Mathew Gendle admitted he loved the chain’s “seemingly endless selection of humorous tchotchkes,” he said the chain is one of many major retailers that pose “egregious environmental harm.”

“Buc-ee’s locations are enormous — often featuring more than 100 fuel pumps and over 50,000 square feet of retail space packed with cheap souvenirs and consumer goods,” Gendle wrote in an opinion column published in the Charlotte Observer. “And I believe that this excess makes Buc-ee’s a prime example of end-stage American consumerism at its worst.”

Complaints derailed previous plans for a North Carolina Buc-ee’s not far from the current proposed site along I-40. The company pulled out after residents in Orange County, home to Chapel Hill, protested over congestion and threats to a nearby protected watershed.

Buc-ee’s made clear its disappointment at the time.

“Unfortunately, Orange County commissioners were not receptive to 200 jobs with starting pay of $15 per hour and full benefits, more than $1 million in direct tax revenue, and multiple services that would create additional jobs, tax revenue and benefit a sector of the community that has been historically underserved,” Buc-ee’s said in a statement.

Buc-ee’s first opened in Texas in 1982 and has since expanded to 46 locations across Texas and beyond, with more in the pipeline. Buc-ee’s now has travel centers in Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky. The chain also plans to build in Colorado.

Most of the time, news of a new Buc-ee’s location is lauded by legions of fans. Facebook groups with names like “BUC-EE’S LOVERS” have hundreds of thousands of followers. One Facebook group for the store in Sevierville, Tennessee, which just opened in June, already has nearly 60,000 members.

But the privately owned company based near Houston continues to hit some roadblocks.

In September, Buc-ee’s halted plans for a third location in Tennessee, this one in Clarksville, after residents began protesting in June. Community members said construction noise and traffic were their top concerns.

In Mississippi, construction on a new Interstate 10 interchange to accommodate a Buc-ee’s travel center near Biloxi caused traffic jams that can back up for miles.

Last summer, a group in Springfield, Missouri, calling itself “Dam Up Buc-ee’s” fought against city leaders offering tax incentives for an “oversided gas station on steriods that threatens our drinking water.” They lost the fight.

North Texans may remember how the Denton Buc-ee’s along Interstate 35E initially faced pushback when more than 200 city residents launched a campaign against using tax incentives.

That controversy was in stark contrast to the earlier opening of the Fort Worth Buc-ee’s in 2016, which was universally celebrated as the first location in the Metroplex.

Nik Holman, a former mailman in Terrell, can understand why some people in rural communities are less than enthusiastic about Buc-ee’s. When a travel center came to his small city east of Dallas in 2015, the peace and quiet of the country disappeared.

“Not only is that place massive, but for some weird reason, it’s also a mecca for many travelers,” Holman said. “Of course, Buc-ee’s brought in traffic, so retail, and restaurants came in along with hotels.”

Holman said when he was a kid growing up in Terrell, he could see a sky full of stars at night. After Buc-ee’s, all he could see was the light from the beaver sign towering over the trees near his neighborhood.

“Within just a couple of years, that whole area went from sleepy cow pastures to its own micro-city,” he said. “The country is vanishing.”