Editor's note April 29, 2019: This story has been updated with opening-day photos of the new location.
North Texans, start your engines. Buc-ee's is now open in Melissa, Texas, along U.S. Hwy. 75 in northern Collin County.
Melissa is located 8 miles northeast of McKinney and about 40 miles northeast of Dallas. It was under construction since February 2018.
The oversized travel center company now counts 36 Buc-ee's, all of those on Texas highways except for one, which is located in Alabama.
The company was founded in 1982 and claims to operate "the largest convenience store in the world": its 68,000-square-foot Buc-ee's in New Braunfels, Texas. It also prides itself on its clean — and spacious — bathrooms. Inside the stores, some as big as a grocery store, Texas travelers are known to buy all kinds of things, from barbecue to T-shirts to fudge. The gas prices are low, too: so low that the Buc-ee's in Alabama was targeted for "predatory" gas prices, our Biz reporter Dom DiFurio reported in February.
Look inside Buc-ee's in Melissa, now open
Buc-ee's has modeled its brand after a cartoon beaver that's now pictured on billboards throughout the Lone Star State. The company even sells a snack called Beaver Nuggets.
When pop star Pink came to town, she famously shopped at Buc-ee's — to see what all the fuss was about. Never been inside one? Our Dallas Morning News columnist Sharon Grigsby takes us there during her first trip to a Buc-ee's.
Buc-ee's currently operates travel centers in Fort Worth, Terrell and Denton; another is expected to open in North Texas, in Royse City, in 2019.
A Buc-ee's is planned for Ennis in 2020.
The new Buc-ee's in Melissa is located at 1550 Central Expressway.
