The race to host the biggest Buc-ee’s on Earth is about to leave Texas in the rearview mirror. A massive new travel center planned for Florida is poised to overtake the current record holder in Luling, shifting a bragging-rights title that Texans have treated almost like a state treasure. The expansion underscores how a once-regional pit stop has turned into a national roadside phenomenon, even if that means the Lone Star State has to share the spotlight.
How Florida grabbed the “world’s largest” crown
The next leap in Buc-ee’s sprawl is planned for Fort Pierce, where the company is preparing a store so large it is designed to eclipse every existing location. Local planning documents and company statements describe a building with roughly 76,000 square feet of retail space, a footprint that would edge past the current record holder in Texas and claim the unofficial title of world’s largest convenience store. The project is part of a broader push by Buc, the Texas-based chain, to plant its beaver logo along major interstates far from its home turf, and Fort Pierce offers a high-traffic junction where that strategy can play out in full.
Plans for Fort Pierce also call for a sprawling fuel operation, with Florida officials highlighting a layout that includes 120 g as part of the design, a scale that turns a gas stop into a small logistics hub. The site is positioned near Interstate 95 and Indrio Road, a corridor described in planning materials as a key gateway for traffic along Florida’s east coast, and Buc executives have signaled that the Fort Pierce build is central to their ambitions to dominate long-haul routes outside Texas. For a brand that built its reputation on Texas road trips, the fact that this record-breaking complex will rise in Florida is a symbolic shift.
Texas built the Buc-ee’s mystique, then watched the record move
For years, Texas has been the spiritual and physical center of the Buc-ee’s universe, and the current record holder sits right in the middle of that story. The company opened a giant travel center in Luling, Texas, that is now described as the biggest Buc-ee’s standing today and the largest convenience store in the world. Video tours of the Luling complex show a vast sales floor packed with brisket stations, aisles of snacks, and walls of branded merchandise, all framed by a sea of fuel pumps that reinforce the idea that in Luling, and in Texas, everything really is bigger, as highlighted in a widely shared World clip.
The Luling site did not just appear out of nowhere; it reflects a long pattern of Texas-sized experimentation that turned Buc-ee’s into a roadside destination rather than a simple gas station. The chain’s reputation for spotless restrooms, sprawling snack selections, and quirky branding helped it grow from a regional curiosity into a national cult favorite, with fans willing to detour off the highway just to stock up on Beaver Nuggets and other Buc staples. That is why the prospect of a larger store in Florida feels like a cultural pivot: the state that nurtured the brand and still hosts the largest existing Buc location in Luling, Texas, is now watching the next superlative pass to a different part of the map.
Inside the Fort Pierce build: scale, pumps, and highway strategy
The Fort Pierce project is not just about bragging rights, it is a carefully engineered piece of roadside infrastructure. Site plans describe a massive building paired with a forest of fuel dispensers, with the Fort Pierce layout designed to move large volumes of cars, pickups, and RVs through the property without the gridlock that plagues smaller travel centers. The location near Interstate 95 and Indrio Road gives Buc a strategic foothold on one of the busiest north–south corridors on the East Coast, capturing both Florida vacationers and long-haul truck traffic that might otherwise bypass the brand entirely…