After suffering in a virtual Beaver Nuggets desert for decades, North Texans have had a lot to celebrate in the last couple of years. We now boast three Buc-ee’s within an hour’s drive, with two more opening this year -- one in Royse City and the other north of McKinney, in Melissa.

Judging from the stores’ parking lots and travelers’ social media comments, the new hasn’t worn off. No road trip seems complete without a stop there; the five-star reviews of Buc-ee’s squeaky-clean bathrooms and cheaper-than-most fuel prices only grow with every opening.

But as the bigger-than-super-sized stores continue to land on prime highway real estate, I wondered how the locals -- especially competing businesses in the area -- feel about the Buc-ee’s boom. So I spent a recent day out in Terrell, the home to North Texas’ first -- and still closest to my Dallas home -- Buc-ee’s.

First, a confession: I’d never been inside a Buc-ee’s before last week. My road-warrior days on Texas highways mostly involved camping trips to the Hill Country, Big Bend and through the Panhandle to cooler climes. Not a Buc-ee’s in sight -- although we occasionally saw a billboard that made us giggle. For instance, “The Top Two Reasons to Stop at Buc-ee’s: Number 1 and Number 2.”

Only in the last couple of years did I cross paths with newly opened Buc-ee’s -- on Interstate 35 in Temple and in Denton, which is home to the newest one in North Texas. My curiosity to exit was always extinguished by the convenience store’s sheer size.

Signs for a new Ross Dress For Less and Five Below that will be part of a large shopping complex under construction across the street from the Buc-ee's in Terrell (Brian Elledge / Staff Photographer)

As a Buc-ee’s first-timer, I felt like I had walked into a mash-up of the Sample House and Bass Pro Shops. The vibe is, alternately, “Raised on sweet tea and Jesus” wall hangings and “I’ll bring the bad decisions” gimme caps. Eager-beaver employees are everywhere, and they all seem genuinely excited to be on the job.

The Terrell Buc-ee’s -- like its 30-plus sibling stores across Texas and the first one to open out-of-state, in Alabama -- is disarmingly understated in earth tones and minimal signage. OK, if you can be understated with 84 gas pumps; the Denton Buc-ee’s has 122.

What the place lacks in curb appeal, it makes up for with location -- bordered by the much traveled Interstate 20 and the spur to U.S. Highway 80. Buc-ee’s is a highway oasis between Shreveport and Dallas-Fort Worth.

My conversations at a couple of dozen local businesses indicated that some competitors view Buc-ee’s as a frenemy, but most are still almost giddy about how, even more than three years after the megastore opened, it’s still creating buzz for Terrell. And more importantly, it’s sparking development.

Properties adjacent to Buc-ee’s are dotted with new food outlets -- some longtime Texas favorites such as Whataburger and Dairy Queen, others relative newcomers such as Panda Express and Chipotle. Nearby, a Fairfield Inn by Marriott and a massive movie and bowling alley are rising out of the former farmland.

Business was brisk at every establishment I visited -- employees could take only a moment or two to talk to me before a line of customers grew. Some credited the auspicious location at this junction of roadways, others offered props to Buc-ee’s, the 21st-century general store with a Mayberry-era throwback mascot.

Jose Gonzalez walks by a large stuffed beaver at Buc-ee's in Terrell. (Brian Elledge / Staff Photographer)

The young barista at Starbucks, Buc-ee’s next-door neighbor, estimates that half the store’s business comes from people carrying beaver-emblazoned merchandise. A lifelong resident of nearby Crandall, he has high hopes for the once-sleepy Terrell.

The counter workers at Chipotle cited not just the store’s booming business but the perks the Buc-ee’s brings to their own lives -- whether it’s the gas, which always costs nearly 10 percent less than at other stations, or the Wednesday night car shows in the massive parking lots.

They also pointed out that you can get anything you need -- and a lot you don’t -- at Buc-ee’s. “It’s like having a Walmart next door,” one of them told me.

I had half expected that a grimmer Walmart comparison might emerge: Was Buc-ee’s running smaller businesses into a financial ditch?

Not at all, said the manager of the Swiftco gas station, which was the lone occupant of this now golden triangle of land before Buc-ee’s arrived. She told me that the roadside attraction and the subsequent development helps her business too.

Construction workers darted in and out of the aging Swiftco, and several of them stopped just long enough to tell me this was a far more convenient option than Buc-ee's. They are part of the crew laying the groundwork for the "Crossroads of Terrell," a 250-acre retail and mixed-use development across the street from Buc-ee's.

Signs tout the “coming soon” of a Specs, a Chick-fil-A and a shopping center that will include a Hobby Lobby, Ross and Five Below.

One of the many t-shirts you can buy at Buc-ee's in Terrell (Brian Elledge / Staff Photographer)

Just down the road, at the exit for Terrell’s big Tanger Outlets, managers and clerks at a cluster of convenience stores mostly rolled their eyes at questions about working in the shadow of Buc-ee’s. A clerk at QuikStop --which like the other spots I visited had plenty of vehicles at the pump -- said: “Buc-ee’s gets the tourists. We get the locals and the truckers.”

While she is right about the truckers -- Buc-ee’s doesn’t have fuel bays for 18-wheelers -- I ran into a lot of area residents at the fuel pumps under the sign of the beaver.

And inside, Buc-ee’s one-of-everything offerings make the place just as appealing for locals as weary drivers.

After an hour of sensory overload and the sugar rush of a cake ball and fudge -- recommended over the Beaver Nuggets by several locals at the gas pumps -- I needed a Starbucks. But not until I made one more attempt to find out the secret behind the cheerfulness.

What kind of training does Buc-ee’s provide? I asked the woman behind the bakery counter: “It’s not the training, sweet thing. It’s just the people. They stop here and are happy. So we are too. I love it here.”

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