Opening Day at Buc-ees Johnstown was a huge success as thousands of customers crowded the store during the day. The center section of Buc-ees stores is where the fresh food stations are located which are naturally a popular and crowded space as crowds of customers wait to make their lunch or snack choice. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
The newest Buc-ees store in Johnstown, Colo. held its grand opening on March 18, 2024. Thousands of customers visited the store creating traffic jams just to exit the freeway and enter the parking area. Over 400 customers were in line at 6 a.m. to be the first customers to enter the store. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
A while back a Post From the Road featured the roadside convenience stores Buc-ees which has been expanding and growing well beyond its home state of Texas since 2019. For the last two years Buc-ees has been constructing their newest and largest store in Johnstown, Colo. a small town between the Denver metro area and Ft. Collins on I-25.
The process seems to have taken forever and with each passing month the excitement of a Buc-ees in Colorado became more pronounced. By the time of the grand opening, March 18, the line outside of the store looked like Black Friday crowds camping out and waiting to be the first customers in the store and the TV cameras were there to record it all.
Buc-ee’s stores began as a concept by founder Arch “Beaver” Alpine III. He was later joined by business partner Don Wasek. The first Buc-ee’s was opened in Lake Jackson, Tex. in 1982. That first store was 3,000 square feet and business was good. The branding included a beaver with a buck tooth named Bucky Beaver which proved to be a genius marketing tool as the number of stores grew in the region southwest of Houston.
At 6 a.m. March 18, it was estimated that over 400 anxious customers were lined up in the cold and darkness to enter the Buc-ees in Johnstown. While I was hoping to be at the store for opening day I did not camp out in the cold to enter at 6 a.m.
We drove north on the morning of March 18 and arrived at exit 252 on I-25 later that morning. We were greeted with a line of cars edging their way along the shoulder of the Interstate for maybe a mile just to exit and cross over to the Buc-ees mega store on the west side of the highway. A half hour passed and we were finally approaching the parking lot designed for 500 vehicles.
After touring the parking lot scouring for a parking spot for another twenty minutes we landed a spot near the entrance on the south end of the building. This Buc-ees convenience store is a mere 74,000 square feet in size with 120 gas pumps lined neatly in a single row stretching across the property in front of the store.
We had finally arrived. We have been in many Buc-ees and this one was still special! We walked through every department admiring the goods along with about a thousand other shoppers. It was nice to see Buc-ees merchandise with a Colorado theme and photos. Some shoppers pushed baskets loaded with various Buc-ees Beaver products and others just walked and looked with a glaze in their eye trying to “take it all in”.
Buc-ees business model is to provide clean restrooms, freshly prepared food, cheap fuel, and provide outstanding customer service. Of course the target audience for Buc-ees is travelers, especially families traveling together. We witnessed this on every level at Johnstown. While crowds of customers were everywhere, so were the friendly and helpful Buc-ees employees. Other employees walked around with a broom making sure the spotless clean store remained that way. Other employees were restocking shelves as quickly as customers were clearing the shelves of merchandise. Beaver magic had made its way to Colorado.
After an hour or so it was time to join the crowd at the Texas Round Up where employees are continually making fresh barbecue sandwiches and other delicious food for guests. We tried a brisket and a pulled pork sandwiches and they were delicious. We followed that with Buc-ees banana pudding for desert. We can’t wait to make a return visit!
It is easy to see why Buc-ees stores have earned so many awards within its industry. We were happy that we fought the crowds and joined in on the opening of this newest Buc-ees location.
When on your next road trip to Denver take some time to drive another hour to Johnstown and visit Buc-ees newest and largest store to date. Find out for yourself what the convenience store gas station with a cult like following is all about. The fresh brisket or pulled pork sandwiches will be waiting for you.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
All of the Buc-ees mega stores have a full size pick up body painted red with the beaver logo on the doors and loaded with Buc-ees stuffed animals of various sizes. A wide variety of merchandise from clothing to food to home goods and gifts to camping gear can be found at the Buc-ees roadside travel stops. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Arch ‘Beaver’ Aplin III in the white hat is the founder and co-owner of Buc-ees stores and speaks here with a customer. Aplin was in Johnstown for the grand opening of the newest and largest Buc-ees store. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
The Texas Round Up section of the Buc-ees store had plenty of visitors during the grand opening at Johnstown, Colo. In addition to the Texas Round Up, fresh food cooked in-house can be found at the Bakery, Burritos and Tacos, Beef Jerky, and Sweets counters in the center of the store. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
A Buc-ees employee cleans one of the large mixers used to make fresh fudge in the Sweets section of the Johnstown store. All fresh sweets are made in-house at each Buc-ees store. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Customer service is over the top at Buc-ees. The employees are friendly and helpful in every way making shopping at the store a pleasant experience. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
The pastries counter at Buc-cees in Johnstown is loaded with mouth watering sugar filled items which are all baked in-house at the store. Surely there must be something in the case to satisfy that sweet tooth! Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
