How many Buc-ee's are in Florida? How many more are opening, and where are they?
The Buc-ee's empire continues to spread beyond its home state of Texas. The cult-favorite chain has more massive gas stations/convenience stores coming to new places like Mississippi, Georgia, and Virginia. Last, they opened one in Johnstown, Colorado, the first location west of the Lone Star State.
Buc-ee's is a wildly popular chain of gargantuan gas stations, each one with typically 100-120 gas pumps, the cleanest bathrooms in America, and a store the size of a small grocery store with a wide variety of well-received store-brand products such as jerky, roasted nuts, fudge, brisket, the signature Buc-ee's Beaver Nuggets and much more, along with the usual gas station items.
Most gas stations don't sell entire BBQ grills and housewares, though, or feature a big, cheerful, buck-toothed mascot that grins at you from everywhere. The chain is also known for its excellent per-hour starting pay and benefits.
Buc-ee's moved into Florida long ago and it's still going, with new stores on the way.
There are currently two Buc-ee's in Florida:
St. Augustine, 200 World Commerce Parkway: Opened in February 2021 with 52,600 square feet and 104 fueling stations
Daytona Beach, 2330 Gateway North Drive: Opened in March 2021 with 53,000 square feet and 104 fueling stations. This one added a massive, 235-foot long car wash last year.
Bucc-ee's officials have big plans to expand their footprint in the Sunshine State.
, Marion County: In February, Gov Ron DeSantis was on hand to break ground for a new I-75 store that is scheduled to get a Buc-ee's with 74,000 square feet and 120 fueling stations. An opening date has not been set since it relies on completion of the interchange first.
, St. Lucie County: A planned location at I-95 northwest of Fort Pierce and southwest of Vero Beach would be 76,245 square feet with 120 gas pumps and 18 EV charging stations. The state signed off in April, and if the county approved the final site plan, it could open in 2026.
, Leon County: Buc-ee's submitted a permit application in February with plans for a proposed 75,000 square foot store, with 120 gas pumps and 24 EV charging stations. If it goes through, this would be one of the largest Buc-ee's in the country.
, Charlotte County: There are plans for a Buc-ee's in a trio of villages near a new Harborview development in Southwest Florida. Depending on the zoning, it's planned to be around 74.000 square feet, according to Stan Beard, Buc-ee's national director of real estate and development.
A rumored one in Lee County didn't work out.
None of the Buc-ee's around the country will ever surpass the largest one, a Buc-ee's in Luling, Texas that spreads more than 75,000 square feet. Last year, it replaced the original location built in 2003.
And Buc-ee's wants to keep the Texas-sized stores inside Texas.
"Regarding square footage, the largest store outside of Texas will not exceed 74,000 square feet," a company spokesperson said in an email in 2024 after rumors arose about the new Ocala store potentially breaking the record.
It's a convenience store and a gas station and a tourist attraction. If you're on the road and need pretty much anything, up to and including a smoker grill, Buc-ee's has you covered.
Buc-ee's began in Texas in 1982 and stayed in the Lone Star State for years, but the chain has been making inroads into the Sunshine State and elsewhere. Locations are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and serve as one-stop shops for travelers and locals.
They're known for cheap(er) gas at each location's insane number of gas pumps; stores bigger than your average Publix; a wide variety of hot food, bakery items and fudge prepared on site; a wider variety of store-brand snacks, grocery staples, short sauce and jerky; and a large section of home decor, kitchen utensils, clothing, barbecue grills, Florida souvenirs, and more.
They're also justifiably famous for their clean bathrooms, which are also enormous. Buc-ee's was rated by GasBuddy.com as having the cleanest restrooms of any convenience store chain in the nation. And for their starting pay, which is often plainly listed on big display boards outside when they're hiring.
In May 2024, USA TODAY's 10Best chose Buc-ee's as the 10th best for both Best Gas Station Brand and Best Gas Station for Food.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Buc-ee's spreading across US. How many more are coming to Florida?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hearing set June 12 in CARD Clinic seizure; sheriff's sale set for July 2
Jun. 6—A federal judge in Missoula will hear arguments next week dealing with BNSF's attempts to seize the assets of Libby's CARD Clinic. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Thursday, May 12, in the Russell Smith Federal Courthouse. Judge Dana L. Christensen will hear the case. Also, Lincoln County Sheriff Darren Short signed a notice Thursday, June 5, giving notice to a sheriff's sale July 2 to the highest bidder to satisfy the judgment for the plaintiff, BNSF, with interest and costs. While the date is subject to change pending an order from the court, the sale is currently set for 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 2. According to Montana code, the sheriff's office has 120 days from the day it received the writ to conduct the sale. The sale will include the real property as well as office equipment, furnishings, and other machinery, fixtures and equipment. For more information, contact the sheriff's office at 406-293-4112, ext. 1232. The non-profit clinic, which has served thousands of patients afflicted with asbestosis and other deadly ailments, has been closed since May 7 when the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office served a Writ of Execution on the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, Inc. to satisfy a $3.1 million judgment. A writ of execution is a court order directing a sheriff to seize and sell property to satisfy a judgment. The judgment stems from a lawsuit won in 2023 by Texas-based BNSF, owned by billionaire Warren Buffett, that accused the clinic of filing hundreds of fraudulent claims over several years. Federal jurors ruled two years ago that the clinic made or presented false claims 337 times, including 91 violations after November 2015. CARD filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2023, allowing it to continue operations. But the United States intervened in the bankruptcy proceeding and determined that the judgment should not be paid, so the bankruptcy was settled and dismissed in spring 2024. In September 2024, CARD lost an appeal to a jury's 2023 judgment. In the meantime, CARD officials recently found another location to serve its patients. It is located at 118 West 3rd Street. It will be open the same hours as the clinic, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. "We are still receiving grant money and we have a mission to fulfill so we're pleased we can still offer some services," McNew said. "Patients are welcome to stop in and we'll work to answer their questions." McNew said they are able to answer emails from patients and send test results to patients. She also hopes that they will be able to continue outreach education. Another hope is that the new location will have working phones next week. McNew said since the seizure of the clinic, BNSF has taken at least $100,000 from the clinic's operating account. In a May 9 court filing, Billings-based Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Smith and Lynsey Ross filed a motion in Lincoln County District Court to quash the court's writ on the CARD Clinic. In the motion, the attorneys said it contacted BNSF attorney Cole Anderson and requested the company withdraw the application. But the company declined and objected to the motion. "In 2023, a Montana jury found that the CARD clinic had submitted false asbestos claims costing taxpayers millions of dollars. The judge determined the amount of damages to be repaid, and the process for recovery is set by law," said Kendall Sloan, BNSF Director of External Communicatons. According to a declaration by CARD Executive Director Tracy McNew filed with the motion to quash, she reported that all CARD employees were compelled to vacate the clinic May 7 following the seizure and the sheriff's office replaced all of the locks. Thursday, May 8, following a request, certain CARD employees were allowed to enter the clinic to access the CARD Quickbooks accounting program. McNew said sheriff's office officers monitored CARD employees activities and once they were done using the accounting program, they left the office and haven't returned. In a May 20 filing in federal court in Missoula, CARD's attorney, James A. Patten of Patten, Peterman, Bekkedahl and Green, a Billings firm, sought to join the federal motion to quash the writ and sought a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order. CARD argues that the railway's writ violates bankruptcy proceedings and applicable law. It is seeking the injunction and restraining order to prevent further harm upon CARD and the wrongful interference with the clinic due to its status as a federal grant recipient. In 2011, CARD was chosen by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry for a four-year grant for a screening program for environmental health hazards, including asbestosis, pleural thickening and pleural plaques, caused by exposure to hazardous substances at Libby's Superfund sites. The federal grants continued with the most recent reward in September 2024. It will run through August 2029. The argument also includes the harm the clinic will suffer because it cannot screen patients, provide education, monitor diagnosed patients and provide follow up of testing results and respond to patient requests. In another declaration by McNew, she said the clinic had to cancel about 50 appointments per week since the May 7 closure. It also said the clinic's pulmonary function testing equipment, the only of its kind in Lincoln County, has sat unused as a result of BNSF's seizure. "CARD has on several occasions identified patients in need of emergency care and/or serious treatment for previously undiagnosed malignancies as part of our routine screenings," McNew wrote. BNSF replied to the clinic's filings in a 53-page document filed May 30 in federal court. Among its arguments, railway attorneys Knight Nicastro MacKay maintain because the federal government didn't intervene in the original lawsuit, it doesn't have a right to stop BNSF from recovering money from the judgment. "The Government begins by claiming that litigation in which the United States is a party is reserved to the officers of the Department of Justice, under the direction of the Attorney General, citing U.S. statute. But BNSF attorneys say federal attorneys left out a relevant portion of the statue which directly applies. It reads, "Except as otherwise authorized by law, the conduct of litigation in which the United States, an agency, or officer thereof is a party, or is interested, and securing evidence therefor, is reserved to officers of the Department of Justice, under the direction of the Attorney General." They also say because CARD has mixed its grant income with non-grant income that it must prove its bank accounts and property represent only grant money. During the 2023 trial, a number of donations from plaintiff attorneys were revealed. From 2012 to 2017, the clinic received $81,000 from attorneys and $30,000 for a mortality study. Dr. Brad Black, CARD's former medical director, testified to $116,000 in donations from Montana plaintiff attorneys. The list didn't include two $10,0000 donations from a national plaintiffs' law firm or a $24,381.94 donation for the clinic's new parking lot. BNSF also believes CARD has received its most significant non-grant income in the form of Medicare payments for treating its patients. "This is the equivalent of personal income for CARD and the amount of this income what property it was used to buy is still unknown to BNSF," the attorneys argued. Railway attorneys also said they do not intend to use grant funds to satisfy the judgment or ask to liquidate CARD assets pending the federal court's review of whether grant funds were mixed with non-grant funds to secure the assets. Gold miners discovered vermiculite in Libby in 1881. In the 1920s, the Zonolite Company formed and began mining the vermiculite. In 1963, W.R. Grace bought the Zonolite mining operations. The mine closed in 1990. In 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency placed the site on the Superfund program's National Priorities List and cleanup work continues to this day. Fibers from the asbestos tied to vermiculite mining that began in the 1920s can embed in lung tissue and cause fatal lung disease. No one knows how many people in the region have died from the effects of asbestosis, mesothelioma or other cancers linked to exposure to asbestos-containing vermiculite mined, processed and shipped from Lincoln County and Libby. BNSF's involvement relates to asbestos-contaminated vermiculite in the rail yard that a 2024 federal jury said was a considerable factor in the negligent deaths of former Libby residents Thomas Wells and Joyce Walder. Both Wells and Walder lived near the railyard and were both diagnosed with mesothelioma and died in 2020. Hundreds of people died and more than 3,000 were sickened from asbestos exposure in the Libby area, according to researchers and health officials. BNSF faces accusations of negligence and wrongful death for failing to control clouds of contaminated dust that used to swirl from the rail yard and settle across Libby's neighborhoods. The vermiculite was shipped by rail from Libby for use as insulation in homes and businesses across the U.S.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
The U.S. Government Is Stuck With SpaceX. But Trump Can Still Hurt It.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk arrive for a test launch of SpaceX's Starship rocket on November 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. In the barrage of attacks that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk fired at each other Thursday, one stood out: Trump's threat to cancel federal contracts with companies owned by the world's richest man. The primary target: SpaceX, which has received at least $21 billion in government contracts, with about $13 billion still outstanding. Musk probably doesn't have much to fear. Legally, the Trump administration would likely enmire itself in lengthy legal disputes if it appeared to cancel contracts out of spite. Moreover, as the world's No. 1 launch provider and maker of low-Earth orbit satellites, SpaceX may have made itself indispensable. 'The [U.S. government] is simply too locked in to cut them off over a social media meltdown,' said Kimberly Siversen Burke, director of government affairs at the consultancy Quilty Space. Nonetheless, there are some types of contracts that could be vulnerable for cancellation, and ways the government could lessen its dependence on SpaceX going forward. The 134 rockets SpaceX launched last year accounted for 83% of all satellites put into orbit worldwide. With its reliable, partially reusable Falcon 9, the company has come to dominate U.S. national security launches. Its chief competitor, United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has struggled to keep up, with multiyear delays in developing its new Vulcan rocket. The U.S. government may have more options to carry its military satellites to space going forward. Vulcan is now operational and Blue Origin, the space company founded by Musk's billionaire rival Jeff Bezos, pulled off a successful first launch of its New Glenn rocket in January. In the latest round of contracts awarded by Space Force, SpaceX won 28 launches from 2027 through 2032, a little more than half, with ULA getting 19 and Blue Origin seven. But ULA and Blue Origin have their hands full scaling up, said Todd Harrison, a defense and space analyst with the American Enterprise Institute. 'There's no replacing SpaceX. You just do not have the capacity in our other launch options.' SpaceX has also become a major supplier of national security satellites. The National Reconnaissance Office is depending on SpaceX to build out a multibillion-dollar network of hundreds of spy satellites in low-Earth orbit based on the company's Starshield platform. For delivering cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, NASA has also had to rely on SpaceX, as Boeing has struggled to fix defects in its Starliner spacecraft. But there are some relatively small-dollar SpaceX contracts that could be vulnerable, said Burke. The government could lower its exposure to SpaceX by looking for early phase development programs that don't have a contractor locked in yet. For example, SpaceX has won roughly $140 million in contracts on an Air Force program to test whether commercial satellite services can be integrated into tactical military communications, Burke said. Another way Trump could hurt Musk, as well as Ukraine, would be to cancel or reduce a $537 million contract to provide Starlink satellite communications services to the Ukrainian military. But rather than targeting existing contracts, where the administration could make a greater impact is by steering new business to others and reorienting its plans. The Commerce Department could backtrack on a revamp announced in March to a $42 billion program to expand rural broadband access that was expected to make Starlink eligible to compete for grants. Till now the program has only included telecom companies laying fiber-optic cables. Trump could also pull back from the support he promised in his inaugural address for Musk's ultimate ambition: to reach Mars. 'Where Trump can single handedly harm SpaceX in a significant way is redirecting the mission goals for NASA,' Harrison said. Given how mercurial Musk has proven to be, perhaps diversifying away from SpaceX isn't a bad idea. Burke worries, however, that the bad blood will undo years of work to convince the Pentagon and other national security agencies that they can rely on any commercial companies. 'Elon's antics are threatening to rewind the tape,' she said. MORE FROM FORBES
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
Michaels completes acquisition of Joann's intellectual property and fan-favorite labels
Craft labels from the now-shuttered fabrics seller Joann are making their way to a new home: Michaels. The Michaels Companies announced on Thursday that it had completed its purchase of Joann's intellectual property and private label brands — in an acquisition that arrives as the Texas-based arts and crafting chain works to expand its own fabric, sewing and yarn offerings. "We're honored to have the opportunity to welcome JOANN customers into our creative community and are committed to delivering the selection, value, and inspiration they are looking for at Michaels," Michaels CEO David Boone said in a statement. The deal, he added, allows the company to better "respond to rising demand" among both new and existing customers. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The Associated Press reached out to Michaels for further information on Friday. With roots dating back to a single Ohio storefront in 1943, Joann had grown into a destination for generations of sewers, quilters, knitters and lovers of other crafts for more than 80 years. But more recently, operational challenges continued to pile up — with the retailer pointing to sluggish consumer demand, inventory shortages and rising competition. Joann announced it would be going out of business back in February, just one month after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time within a year. At the time, the company said financial services company GA Group, together with Joann's term lenders, had been selected as the winning bidder to "acquire substantially all of Joann's assets" and conduct going-out-of-business sales at all store locations. Michaels on Thursday said that its purchase of Joann's IP and private brands included the acquisition of "Big Twist" yarns, which had become a staple in Joann stores over the years. Those "Big Twist" labels are now being developed as part of Michaels' portfolio — and will be available in-stores and online later this year, the company said. In the meantime, Michaels has also dedicated a landing page to welcome former Joann customers online. And as part of its overall expansion into fabrics, Michaels said on Thursday that its adding more than 600 new products from new and existing brands — including quilting supplies and fabrics, specialty threads, sewing machines and more. Michaels, founded in 1973, currently operates 1,300 stores across 49 U.S. states and Canada. Its parent company also owns Artistree, a framing merchandise manufacturer.
