If you didn’t grow up in Texas, you might take the “everything’s bigger in Texas” bit as a joke. I can assure you that it is no joke. Endowed with wide open spaces and an indefatigable desire to be noticed, there’s a certain type of Texan who sees it as their duty to achieve the maximum. Few places embrace this bigness better than the Buc-cee’s chain of gas stations.
The gas station has existed almost as long as the car has and many have attempted to gain attention through novelty, most notably South of the Border in South Carolina. No fuel stop in my lifetime has gained the notoriety of Buc-ee’s, which can boast being the best and biggest in many petrol station-related categories.
I don’t think I need to go into great detail about the history of Buc-ee’s as everyone seems to know the place. Just this weekend I saw the famous Buc-ee’s billboard on the New Jersey Turnpike that encourages drivers to make a u-turn and head 581 miles in the other direction to get to the nearest outpost. My daughter’s teacher has a Buc-ee’s sticker on his wall. If you do need a refresher you can read this.
As the official Buc-ee’s correspondent here at The Autopian, I thought I’d talk about the company’s longest gas station, which is going viral for some reason.
Yes, It’s Real And It’s Fantastic
Texans love a superlative, and at 255-feet long, the Buc-ee’s car wash in Katy, Texas is indeed the longest car wash in the world. If you watch any videos of people going through it, you’ll see that it takes almost a full five minutes to go from start to finish:
As of last year, the price for a basic wash was $13 and “the works” was $16. That’s not a bad deal.
As you approach the gas station there are four automated lanes where you can choose the wash you want (do you want “free tire shine?”).
As you can see in the video, once you’ve made your selection you drive around to an attendant who helps line you up on the conveyer belt that puts you in the car wash (assuming you remember to take your foot off the brake and toss it into neutral). From there it’s mostly just a car wash, although one that starts in a very specific way.
You miss it a bit in the video above, so watch the ABC13 video if you want to see how the car wash sprays the window with foam so that the image of Buc-cee the Beaver (he of the Beaver Nugget) can be projected onto it.
Otherwise, it’s just a super long car wash that allows more cars to pass through at the same time. It has the colored foam that’s super popular now (our local car wash also has this, although the car wash itself is only about a quarter the length of Buc-ee’s).
Other than the pursuit of a superlative, the volume is probably a reason why Buc-cee’s did this according to the NACS:
The value of incorporating a car wash on the same premises as a convenience store or gas station is clear—increased potential for a high-margin addition to the business and building customer loyalty.
Though, for Buc-cee’s, the notoriety is probably a good enough reason.
Why Do We Care Now?
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As with most things Buc-ee’s, this story just went viral recently even though the original record was given way back in 2017 after the car wash was opened.
The slickly-produced Instagram reel from Texas Love List is probably why. That reel alone has 6.7 million views. And this one from TikTok has over a million. People go crazy for Buc-ee’s food, apparel, world’s largest gas station, et cetera.
Since going viral people keep sharing Buc-cee’s videos and it’s a reminder that, if you have the choice, why would you go to any other gas station?
I think I have PTSD from my one and only Bucees stop. So many cars, lines for the pumps, and the inside was shoulder to shoulder crowded. There’s no way it wasn’t a fire code violation. (Assuming there are building fire codes in AL?). I could easily see someone having a panic attack in the middle of the store.
A 10 min stop for gas and a snack turned into 40 minutes for gas a snack. (The food was fine, but nothing special.)
Well, that’s my experience anyway.
I grabbed my honey-roasted cashews and got the hell out as fast as I could…
Yeah i thought it was cool at first when we got one kinda on my commute to music venue but it really is anxiety inducing sometimes for sure.
This is why they don’t have squeegees.
I was pissed about that too until one time I went in and asked and they do have squeegees. There are a couple five gallon buckets with long handled squeegees in them on the outer edge of the parking lot near the air hose. At least that’s the case with the one in Alabama we’ve been to.
WHAT?? That’d be a game-changer.
Let’s see if i remember to check next time.
So what is the point of the length? They are washing space shuttles there?
I mean my local wash streets wash the car about in walking pace and it takes like 2-3 minutes to go through. And they are perhaps 25-30m long.
OH, I’m uniquely qualified to answer this. I have work experience! 🙂
Throughput. Each element of the car wash takes a certain amount of time to run a car through it and needs space between the elements in front and in back to be effective and there’s a tradeoff with how fast you can put a car through the wash tunnel. If you pack brushes and sprayers too close together, the car won’t get coated or cleaned properly unless you run the conveyor slowly enough. The more space you have between elements, the faster you can run the conveyor so the longer the car wash the more cars you can run through the wash each hour. Longer tunnel = more cars = more revenue.
As with everything at Buccees, it’s all about volume. More pumps, more checkout lanes, longer carwash tunnel all mean more cars can visit and not have time and crowd be a significant restricting factor or deterrent to going there.
Excellent answer