Dive Brief:

  • Buc-ee's held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its first Arkansas store on Monday, according to a company press release.
  • The travel center located off Highway 229 in Benton features a 74,000-square-foot store and 120 fueling positions, per the announcement.
  • This latest expansion comes as Buc-ee's trademark lawsuits have drawn increased scrutiny to the fast-growing company.

Dive Insight:

Buc-ee's received site plan approval for its first Arkansas location in April 2024 and broke ground 12 months later. Now that the Benton store is officially open, it will bring Buc-ee's proprietary foodservice and extensive private-label product lines to another new market, continuing the popular retailer's multi-year expansion strategy.

While other convenience store operators have opened more locations than Buc-ee's in recent years, few—if any—have entered as many new states as the Texas-based chain. At the start of 2019, all Buc-ee's stores were in Texas. The retailer now also operates in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

The company also has stores in development across several additional states. Locations in Wisconsin, Utah, Idaho, Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, North Carolina, and Louisiana are at various stages of approval or construction, and the company recently began pursuing approvals in Iowa.

Buc-ee's has also made headlines recently for a series of lawsuits filed to defend its trademarks. The retailer has sued at least four companies this year, settling with one, scheduling a settlement conference for a second, and facing counterclaims from a third.