UPDATE: Buc-ee’s eyes Indianapolis area for first Indiana location

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33 thoughts on “UPDATE: Buc-ee’s eyes Indianapolis area for first Indiana location

    1. Buc-EEs pays between $18 and $42 per hour. With Manager salaries starting at $100K per year and going to $225K per year. I don’t think that sounds like low-wage jobs.

    2. Most of the jobs in any retail shop will be at the low end of the wage scale, and Buc-EEs is no different. Sure, a handful of managers make good middle class money, but almost everyone else is well below the area median.

    3. Chris B, this just shows you’ve never even been to one. If you did you would know they start their employees at $18-21. And that’s prices for cashiers and stockers. People working in food service and bathroom attendance start at around $23 an hour.

    4. Chris B, temporary workers at a Ford assembly plant start at 17 an hour, I think this is pretty good pay for a convenience store. And they promote from within and there’s no reason anyone can’t move up to a manager position.
      I don’t care what kind of math you do but they’ll have no problem finding plenty of employees who want to work there.

  1. This is un-ironically great for Indiana. Buc-ee’s pays a higher skill-adjusted wage than most other places. They will employ many people – more than a data center most likely – and at wages better than say warehouses for those who don’t have college degrees.

    1. Clean restrooms. Food is pretty solid with a wide variety. Doesn’t have to be your jam, the place will be packed 24/7 despite the gas prices being higher than you can find elsewhere.

  2. A fad. One that will surely take tax and/or infrastructure incentives to kill gas stations along several exits, only to take off and leave in 20 years with the allure has worn off. Further Walmartification of rural and exurban America.

    The State would be better off incentivizing existing highway-exit gas stations to increase pay & cleanliness. Tax breaks for good business practices.

    1. The state has already taken several interstate rest stops off-line. That’s more than enough assistance to the industry. I can see why Greenwood would offer incentives to get the local tax revenue but I’d feel differently if the state offered anything.

      This sort of thing is also the dream of our state legislators, who are on the record as freaking out because people can drive across the state of Indiana without stopping, buying gas, and paying the gas tax.

      As noted, Buc-ee’s pays workers well. The entire chain is doing the exact opposite of what you’re describing, they’re growing everywhere. Crummy gas stations in the area will close. Good ones will persist because some people will not want to bother with Buc-ee’s. The folks who moved down to that area for the rural living will hate it and will move further south, because the first month of this place being open is going to be a traffic disaster and it will always be busy.

    2. Yes, it is mysterious that the media hasn’t seen fit to mention that the state has actually eliminated several rest areas. It looks like its new approach is basically to get rid them apart from the welcome centers. It will be truck only parking.

    3. Robert, have you ever been to a Buc-ee’s or spent time learning anything about their history. They have been around for 30+ years and are growing like crazy. This is not a fad. They pay great wages, are a great company to work for, and every community that I have read about has embraced it when their local Buc-ee’s opened. Why do people in Indiana hate anything that is new to them?

    4. I don’t know about other people in Indiana, but I am looking for our economic development efforts to be focused on getting large numbers of new jobs that pay at least the median wage, i.e. good middle-class jobs. That’s close to $70,000 in Indiana.

      Warehouses and Buc-EEs might have a handful of manager jobs that are middle class, but everyone else is making not-so-good money and will live paycheck to paycheck. (A basic living wage for a single adult with no children is estimated at around or $43,280 before taxes according to MIT.)

      Even $20 an hour is only $41,600 per year. To keep housing expense at 30% of wages, that employee would have to find an apartment or house for around $1,000 per month. Nearby (older) 1 bedroom apartments are in the $1100-1200 range, so people at $18-20/hour would be considered “rent burdened”.

    5. Chris, Chopper Mike said that Indiana is out of that sort of economic development any longer ..
      And the folks that Indiana will be churning out with the new diploma standards won’t be qualified to demand a middle class salary anyways.

    6. Well if it’s a fad it’s been going on since 1982 and they’re expanding nationwide.
      Obvious you’ve never been to one.

    7. I’ve been to a Buc-ees. Reeks of a fad. 30+ years, mostly in a single state, isn’t great.

    8. Robert – 11 states (soon to be 13) is now 1 state to you?

      Anything else you say is meaningless if you argue 13=1 as the basis of your point

  3. When planning these new locations, please include local access roads to prevent highway exit backups caused by drivers trying to get to the Buc-ees. The one in Crossville TN is so close to the interstate with little or no local access roads that the exit ramp is normally backed up. The one in Texas City TX is located off access roads so that any traffic backups do not occur on the highway and that is the model that should be emulated.

  4. The loss of more and more of Boone County’s rich farmland and soil to paved parking lots is sad enough to begin with. And now they are putting in this tacky business? Love’s is clean and satisfactory, and so is Wawa, without being a circus sideshow (and as someone above presciently said, a fad).

    1. Maybe these Boone County farmers could put permanent agricultural conservation easements on their property if they really want to protect that land from development.

    2. I would not at all be shocked if there were more local jobs and tax revenue for Boone County from the Buc-ee’s than the Facebook data center.

    1. I stopped at one in Georgia. Crossed the street to Love’s and paid 60 cents a gallon less.

    2. Buc-ee’s almost always has the lowest gas prices around.
      Loves on the other hand usually has the highest.

  5. So much excitement over a Buc-ee’s convenience store and gas station? Been there a few times — outside of clean restrooms and many choices of mediocre food (yes even the barbeque is overrated) it’s okay — at least to me, hardly a destination. Kudos though, they’re great at marketing and appealing to more rural southern and midwestern tastes. Not meant to be a slam, just an observation. Jobs generator? I guess here in the land of giant warehouses, back offices, middling to low-wage pay, and a less-than-stellar higher education ethic — it may be a big deal. Wish we aimed higher.

    1. Bingo. All the recent excitement over giant gas station/c-stores (Wawa, Buc-EEs, Racetrac; will Sheetz join them in Indiana?) is pretty overblown. Personally, I do not stop for gas so I can shop a 40K square foot kitsch store.

    2. I can already get my unhealthy snacks and Diet Coke at literally every gas station in the US.

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