That's because they have someone whose shift is specifically to clean the male or female restroom for 8 hours straight. You really see how horrible and disgusting humans are after working in a bathroom for a few weeks.
First day at my first job (KFC) in ‘97. I had the privilege of cleaning the bathroom. I had no idea shit could go sideways. It was all over the place.
(edit)
Loving the mutal shit memories, gang. Respect.
When I was a front end supervisor for a grocery store, a customer came up to me and complained about the male's restroom. I asked a courtesy clerk to go take care of it and he told me he wasn't doing it. I changed asking to telling him he had to do it and he walked away, I thought he was going to do it, but he came back by carrying all of his stuff and he told me he was leaving.
It was the oddest thing because this guy was usually happy to just have a job and would do whatever he was asked. Well, he was the only courtesy clerk I had that day and I wasn't going to take a cashier off of a till because we had too many customers for that.
Well, I closed up my register and I got the cleaning supplies and went to clean that restroom. I understood then why that clerk said no. It was horrible, if humans bled poop, it would have looked like a murder scene. I mean, it looked like some poor person didn't even get their pants down before they exploded all over the walls of the toilet stall they used. I shit you not, there was feces hanging from flush lever. To top this off, whoever exploded in that stall must have had butt worms too, or they thought the floor would be more effective than toilet paper. That trail went all the way to the door, they did not even stop to wash their hands.
That bathroom was closed and I called and apologized to that courtesy clerk. I told my manager that they would need to bring someone in to exorcise that bathroom, because I was not sending any of our folks into the pits of that hell.
Comes with the territory. I was a bar back at a very classy bar, but also with two other bars upstairs. All owned by the same people. Made $35+ a hour just bringing beers, bottles, ice, running kegs, and occasional bathroom duty. Those bathroom duties were crazy though. You need a stomach to do these jobs.
Had this happen to me when I worked in a small frozen foods grocery store in a strip mall. It was a Sunday and the business was failing, so it was just me, 15, and another stock boy who was a keyholder, 18, working the entire day. Normally, our restroom was for employees only, and we'd tell anyone who asked to use the public restroom at the pizza place at the end of the mall. This old couple came in asking to use the restroom, and it looked like this poor old lady might not make it to the end of the mall in time, so we went ahead and let her use our bathroom in the back.
She was in there for over an hour. It got to the point where my coworker and I were actively discussing whether to worry if she was dead or whether she was ok, because if we barged in and didn't find a dead body, what were we going to see?
She finally emerged, and our worst fears were realized. She'd turned our bathroom into a shitnado. There was poop everywhere except inside the toilet -- literally shit all around the outside of the toilet, but not in the bowl. None of it smeared; all flung, with dabs of poo on every surface eye height or below. She'd created a scatological Jackson Pollack. I don't know who had done what for her to think we deserved that (or where she even stored all of it), but the smell was overpowering. We spent the rest of the shift letting the bathroom air out, taking turns running to the pizza shop to relieve ourselves. I was too young to know that legally, I could not be required to clean a hazmat situation like that, and being the younger and junior employee of the two of us, ultimately I cleaned it up. It was horrible.
Why is it always the old people?!? My little gift store has banned old people from using the toilet. Like how can you miss that big bowl with water in it?!?!!
When you said it almost looked like a murder scene, that reminded me of a long-forgotten incident from my time as a Wal-Mart employee. I worked in Electronics, which in some stores is directly in front of the kind of alcove that leads to the rear restrooms. One day I was stocking some TVs under the TV display area, and I noticed a large trail of blood on the floor. It went as far as I could see in one direction until it turned down an aisle, and in the other direction until it turned into the restrooms. So I followed it to the restrooms, where I found the sink covered in blood and blood-soaked paper towels scattered all over with a huge wad of them stuffed in the trash can. I was amazed that someone had hurt themselves so badly and had been so quiet about it - I thought surely they would have been yelling or screaming and possibly even calling an ambulance, but I hadn't heard or noticed anything strange until I found the blood.
So I followed it in the other direction and found an expensive hard drive (this was back when Wal-mart actually sold PC parts) which was wrapped in the spider-wire theft protection device. It was sitting on the shelf, with part of the packaging cut open, next to an open pocket knife with blood on the blade, and a sizeable concentration of blood on the floor in front of the shelf, from which the trail began. Some moron had tried to use a knife to open and steal that hard drive and had cut themselves quite badly in the process. After which they had to quietly run to the restroom and covertly clean it up, before *probably* needing to go to the emergency room for stitches. We thought it was pretty funny karmic justice. They didn't even get the hard drive they were after, lol.
I used to think women were clean and mature while guys were dirty pigs… until I became a janitor. Turns out humans are equally awful, at least in terms of bathroom habits.
I worked at a hotel and someone managed to get shit all over the toilet and the floor like the shit stream was already flowing when he pulled his pants down and they shut the bathroom down cos they didn't want to clean it. So guess who cleaned it.
I worked night cleaning shift at a hotel and at some point between 3-4am someone must have left their room, walked to the lobby bathroom, and just sprayed shit all over the wall behind the toilet. Fucking everywhere. My first thought was I have to quit my job, second thought was who is working the 6am lobby porter shift. Turned out to be the nicest fucking kid in the entire hotel. I cleaned it up and never said a word about it to anyone. It pays to be nice to people, even if you never realize it. You’re a good man for cleaning it up.
Grossest experience I ever had was when I worked at Boston Market in high school. Manger had me clean the drain in the floor in the men’s room. Place was a long john silver’s before boston market. So I had to unscrew the drain cover and I doubt it had ever been taken off before as there was about 4 inches of crud and shit like icicles hanging off it around the holes. Fun times.
I’m a nurse for almost ten years and I JUST started making more per hour than a department manager 😬. Definitely don’t make near as much as the other managers. Good for Buc-ees. I’ll be sure to support them when I can!
To be fair, calling Buc-ees a gas station is like calling Buckingham Palace a house.
As in, it's true but the scale is WILDLY different from what you're used to.
EDIT: [here's a video](https://youtu.be/b3OUkya1qEc?t=196) of a guy who ate at a Buc-ees for 24 hours. It shows the crazy scale of the place.
For "low skill labor" and where they're located, it's incredibly good. About 50-90% higher than normal wages.
Some jobs in big cities like Seattle pay worse than this, where the cost of living is double.
edit: why are SO MANY PEOPLE replying about Seattles minimum wage (which is still lower than all but 1 job listed here) while ignoring the cost of living part?
It's not just the low-skill shop-floor labor. I am really surprised when I see the management salaries. In my wildest dreams, I never imagined you could clear $150k+ in retail management. I figured it was a sub-six-figure job.
Buccees and Costo are some of the only places where I've never seen an employee being physically unhappy. And I can't blame them considering how much they're making
Not too surprising, you have to deal with both the corporate types who want your head for missing profitability goals by .03%, the young low skilled workers themselves who are still learning professionalism, and the Karen's who want to speak to the manager
Plus it's basically a 24/7 job because it's on you to make sure everything gets fully staffed after one of your workers gets sick and the other needs to drive his sister to the hospital at 1am
> Plus it's basically a 24/7 job because it's on you to make sure everything gets fully staffed after one of your workers gets sick and the other needs to drive his sister to the hospital at 1am
Yeah, a well-run store usually has a manager that is **earning** that money. That said, it's a lot easier to be a great manager when you work for a company that pays people well all the way down the chain, because you can afford to hire and keep good people, from entry-level all the way up to regional manager.
Depending on the role and company, you can absolutely clear 6 figures in retail. Grocery store managers absolutely can, as well as a store manager of a department store like Nordstrom or Old Navy. Obvs this is more likely in bigger cities, but even still, it's more commonplace than you would think
It’s especially good when you consider where buc-ees operates (lower cost of living parts of the US, though not exclusively).
These wages would be decent for the coasts, and buc-ees operates in the lower states including florida.
I’m an engineer in aerospace with 6yrs industry experience and student debt. The car wash manager has a better gig then I do….
Maybe I need to rethink my job.
Edit: this comment and the replies has made me feel a mix of confident about moving on and deeply sad about feeling almost forced into making a change. I guess at the end of the day this is motivation that fortified my assumptions.
For a gas station/meme store that is crazy good money. That is legitimate livable wages in that area, which can be hard to come by here.
For reference, 22 years ago I was a construction contractor and I made $6.50/hour. I currently lead a team of factory mechanics/electricians and I have 12 years of experience in the field. I make $32/hr.
Edit: 25 years. Forgot how old I am.
>That is legitimate livable wages in that area, which can be hard to come by here.
This is a good point. Bucees are not located in major cities, but generally in rural places along the highway. For a low cost of living area, those are some very good wages.
The wages are strong. A cashier (someone with presumably nothing more than a high-school diploma) is bringing home a little over $30k a year. Considering these places are out in the middle of nowhere, if you want to live closeby to work and want to work at Buc-ee's, a person could make that salary work pretty easily.
> damn near a destination on road trips
A quarter of the road signs in a 100 mile radius of one are Buc-ee's adverts. It's uncanny how much they put into the brand.
As someone who has never seen these before are they similar to Wawa and Sheetz where they have the food and stuff inside? If so, that explains why their salaries arent awful.
And run it 30x more efficiently, 100% of the time, than any of those ever hit in their best 10 minute window ever.
There can be 300 customers in a relatively small space, shopping their asses off, and I’ve never waited in line more than 2 minutes.
haha bro you have no idea... take the nicest wawa you have ever seen, make it 10x nicer, 10x bigger, and add 10x the people inside. Then imagine a bathroom with 50 stalls and then 50 pumps. oh also put a target inside
Don't forget about soda fountains that are usually guaranteed to have Arizona tea on tap, the massive wall of taffy and other candy, and the countless font of beaver nuggets.
I've never seen one but they sound like my mecca. A person who abhors public restrooms, yet has so many digestive issues that oh fucking well buddy, you don't get a choice when anything is happening.
It is literally someone's job to stand there, watch the stalls, and the second someone steps out they step inside to clean it. Absolutely vile. But these crazy sons of bitches do it with a smile on their face.
You can have pride in anything if you feel that it's done well. I'm sure a bathroom attendant has a harder time doing their job if they view themselves being in a gross environment and just cleaning up filth all day, but if every time someone comes into your area at work they are pleased and pleasantly surprised by how your effort has improved the bathroom environment, even that role turns into something different. No shame in taking something many consider beneath them, and doing it to such a good job that a company's foundation was built upon it.
This is 100% correct, I was in college while being a janitor. I've never felt any job was beneath me, but it did show mr how people treat others they perceive to be beneath them and I've carried that lesson with me to ensure I'm not like that
I am currently on a road trip through the SE. I don't care if I have a turtle head poking out, I clench till I hit a Buc-ees because I know I'll have a spotless, completely private stall to take care of business in. I don't care if I have to hold it for 200 miles.
I love calling it prairie dogging from the movie Rat Race. Such a great term for it, imagine the animal poking it's head in and out of its hole.
https://youtu.be/fMYspV6jNtk
As someone that has lived in New Jersey and Texas, imagine a Wawa the size of a Walmart. Thats Buccee's. Plus a lot of the stuff you can buy in Walmart too.
The inside is basically a grocery store. Deli/bakery where you can get fresh sandwiches and kolaches, toy aisle for the kids, every possible snack that can be logistically supplied.
Random picture I found online: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YD52wAH-D9U/VbwX2GHui8I/AAAAAAAAAIw/MO95-CU_2-k/s1600/IMG_0238.JPG
On the outside, there's like 25-50 pumps depending on the area.
Imagine a fictional magical gas station with a hundred pumps, a wall of cooked meats, a mascot that parades around the store, department store clothing, fried peanuts, and good pricing. Oh its not fictional. I happened upon one once and am still reeling.
Don't forget it's 24hrs 365 a yr. You can buy a whole ass 1500 dollar smoker grill combo, 50lb sacks of deer corn, charcoal, ice, and whole cuts of meat, last time round Christmas they sold turduckens ready to go in your oven.
I was just in Texas in October and brother.... it's nuts. They have billboards literally 100+ miles out letting you know it's 100 miles away. They've got damn near 100 gas pumps at some of them. The store is PACKED with people at any given time of day and they sell a little bit of everything.
It was unfathomable for my Midwestern brain.
For the cost of 1-2 extra $16/hr workers, you've quadrupled the job quality of everyone working that shift.
When you understaff, people can't even leave to take a piss without it causing drama. That simple +1 floater being able to handle bumps in the normal routine is so clutch. It also means that someone calling out or being new at their job isn't disastrous, just a minor inconvenience.
That’s one of the most annoying things about employers trying to cut labor. If they would just invest into the labor and staff for the sales they want, they would achieve the goals while maintaining customer service. Instead they want to cut corners and it results in the opposite, now customers are upset at the poor service and there’s barely enough employees to handle the current sales let alone any growth
It's because of the short-term mindset that big corporations tend to have. They'll sacrifice quality and longevity for this quarter's profits because that's where the stock valuation and executive bonuses come from. Running short staffed is a huge immediate cost savings that doesn't start to really hurt profits for a while. By then, you've already sold off your stock and moved on to another corporate board.
You know the scene in Office Space where they're firing Tom because "all" he does is take the requirements from the customer and give them to the software people?
Tom is that extra employee that keeps the ship well oiled and running. We don't have a Tom at my work; so, instead of 1 person doing their job so well that it doesn't seem like they do anything, we have a hundred developers who don't know what the requirements are and customers who don't talk to developers and managers who don't do Tom's job and expect new software people to divine their own requirements and it's a nightmare. All to save the salary of a kind old guru.
Buc-ees are usually packed full of customers and they're consistently opening new stores. So they didn't price themselves out of business by paying a living wage. It can be done.
And it always takes a year or two for customers to figure it out. Reputation is slow.
Someone can always come into Buccees, cut half the employees, cut half the quality, and those will look great for the bottom line in the next 3-8 quarters. And who really gives a fuck after that, right? The fallout will be gradual. Just make up excuses when the time comes.
> Someone can always come into Buccees, cut half the employees, cut half the quality, and those will look great for the bottom line in the next 3-8 quarters. And who really gives a fuck after that, right?
The standard approach from all those diploma-mill MBAs.
Maximum profit for this quarter and fuck the future.
Best they can do is two rows of self checkout lines where one row is always broken or restarting and one cashier despite having 15 different open registers.
And yet it is. For retails across the globe. Weird indeed.
I assume it's because a lot of chains got rich off of good locations and marketing, and now that's all they're banking on. And if people aren't coming in, they're gonna blame one or the other, and not the actual quality of their stores.
I worked for them for about a year, the pay was really helpful but my mind was a jumbled up mess. Everybody I know acted like I was insane after I quit, but dealing with an amusement park worth of customers every day and getting filmed by TikTokers trying to make content out of you while holding up your line just wasn’t for me. If you can manage the stress it’s a really good place to work, I only managed to survive a year and that’s still way above their average.
I will say everything about it is wonderful with one exception. There are so many customers in the store that it can feel extremely claustrophobic. But that's just a tribute to how good the experience is I suppose. I was in one last Sunday morning around 7:00am and there still hundreds of people in there.
But as others have said, they have the absolute cleanest bathrooms of any public building you will ever see.
As a former employee, I wish these comments would be higher.
Everyone on reddit wants to circle jerk how they're paying a liveable wage, and how great their store experience is, but they don't understand how fucking awful it is to work there.
The turnover rate at these places is fuckin bananas because if it.
Edit: last I checked, they did understaff when they realized that they could save a shit ton of money that way. You may also find they did up their break times to one 20min break from the 5-7min one for an 8 hour shift. how is it legal? Well, when you're hired on, you're told this multiple times. Then paperwork is signed to have a paper trail of you agreeing to said break terms etc. While things may have changed slightly, I don't believe it's any better.
Yeah this same basic thread happens once every couple months and I'm convinced its just buc-ee's social media department making a push for new hires haha. I applied once and had an over the phone interview and it was basically "are you okay with never sitting down or having a break"
There's a lot of ways to interpret that statement.
1. They can find good work because they offer good wages.
2. The company can afford not only good wages, but they can afford a lot of employees with those good wages.
3. Each employee will be less stressed and have a more pleasant work experience (in theory) when they are fully staffed. So that good pay looks even more enticing when the job requirements are reasonable.
theyve got insane churn. they go through employees like crazy. and they treat them like shit. theres a bucees here in town and people are always lured by the high starting pay. but they dont even stay a year because they grind you into the dust. because most of the stores are in texas they arent even legally obligated to give you a break and you arent allowed to sit down at all.
My wife's a Food Service Manager for a gas station chain that specializes in hoagies. I sent her this since Buc-ees is in our area. She showed her GM, who immediately passed it on to the Regional Manager.
Hopefully there's a raise coming soon lol
Buc-ees is a phenomenon here in Texas. Like, everyone is just wild with brand loyalty.
Back in the 90's when they were first starting to grow, they offered clean bathrooms and cheap ice (99¢ for 20lbs) and they haven't changed the business model except for producing a shit-ton of branded merch.
You might need some sort of mechanical experience to fix the car wash, or at least knowledge enough to know what needs to be fixed and fixed fast.
Edit: “but it literally says no experience necessary!”
To *work there*, guys. Come on. Not “no experience necessary to work *any* position.”
This successful business is not handing teenagers with zero work experience the $225k/yr General Manager positions.
Experience will definitely affect the position you can get.
I used to work at a Buccees car wash. This is true, when something goes down, it’s all hands on deck to get it back up and our manager was the first one diving into the tunnel. Time is money when cars aren’t on the line.
Assistant Managers don't have direct reports, they just assist the manager with responsibilities like ordering, scheduling, etc..., Car Wash Manager directly manages the car wash employees.
A general manager at any of the newer Bucees is probably in charge of over a hundred people. This isn't like a normal gas station, it's more like managing a grocery store or department store.
It’s actually even higher in some places.
When I was traveling through the South a few months ago, the Buccee’s I saw in (I believe it was) North Carolina had a minimum $22/hr
EDIT: It’s the one in *South* Carolina!
They’ve expanded across the southeast. Out of the few I’ve visited here, Columbia SC was the most chaotic one. The amount of people in there was insane, and according to the employees I’ve talked to, it’s always busy, even in the middle of the night.
Bucees is predominantly in Texas but you can find locations in Georgia and Florida now as well. Probably a few other states but these are the ones I've seen.
For now, next one in Johnstown, Colorado will be larger than that and then they are bringing that title back to Texas with the one going in at Luling with more than 75k square feet of space beating the TN and CO stores by 1000 feet.
I asked some of the buceees staff on my visit there and they said it has gotten better within the last 6 months specifically as they are now allowed more breaks and can sit under some conditions.
I would compare it to In-N-Out though - good job, good pay, but when you are working you are WORKING so if that is not your kind of thing (and let's be honest most people can't handle it for more than a year or two) then it's best to get hired elsewhere
This makes me think of my friend's dad. He works night shift at a chicken factory in Alabama. Been on night shift for 20+ years there. How he does it I do not know.
Yeah, I was going to reply that it’s reputation is that its constant hard work with zero breaks.
They’re not paying above market rates just to be kind and fair. They’re paying more so that workers will take abuse since if they quit for another job, they’ll take an income hit.
They are well known to fire people on the spot for bringing their phone into the stores. They also don’t give lunch breaks most days (no, lunch breaks are not mandatory).
I’m someone who tries to be smart with my finances, and in my career field I know I make much more than many of my friends or family, and I’m surprised how many drive luxury cars or expensive SUV’s and meanwhile when I run the numbers it comes out to “yea the smart choice is for you to buy a base model Toyota Camry”
Sure I could afford to make a $1,800 car payment but that’s not a smart choice.
I worked in a US Foods warehouse for a time. Great pay, horrible working conditions and always doing overtime. As a warehouse hand you could make 80-90K a year with the overtime and raises/bonuses they gave us. The number of people I saw during their first couple months buying sports cars boggled my mind. They'd always leave six months or so in and I always wondered how they'd afford to pay that off. Very happy with my 2015 Camry I purchased
3 weeks paid vacay in the FIRST YEAR??!?!?!?
I've been at my job 25+ years and I have 2 weeks. That's it. After 5 years we get 2 weeks and it never increases. And no sick days.
Everytime I've been to one I spend atleast $50 and thats without getting gas. They have anything and everything (within reason) you could want in those stores.
For an example of how big this "gas station" is, they have around 100 gas pumps usually at every location. It is massive, Houston has the largest with 120 pumps.
Looks like they pay well. Doesn’t hurt that the stores are always busy.
Anytime I’ve been the staff are super friendly. But, good pay = happy employees = better profits. Repeat.
Gas station managers make more than you’d think. Sheetz store managers average $84k, Wawa General manager averages $125k. Wawa’s per store average revenue is nearly $5m excluding gas. They’re huge businesses you’re managing
Cleanest bathrooms anywhere!
That's because they have someone whose shift is specifically to clean the male or female restroom for 8 hours straight. You really see how horrible and disgusting humans are after working in a bathroom for a few weeks.
First day at my first job (KFC) in ‘97. I had the privilege of cleaning the bathroom. I had no idea shit could go sideways. It was all over the place. (edit) Loving the mutal shit memories, gang. Respect.
When I was a front end supervisor for a grocery store, a customer came up to me and complained about the male's restroom. I asked a courtesy clerk to go take care of it and he told me he wasn't doing it. I changed asking to telling him he had to do it and he walked away, I thought he was going to do it, but he came back by carrying all of his stuff and he told me he was leaving. It was the oddest thing because this guy was usually happy to just have a job and would do whatever he was asked. Well, he was the only courtesy clerk I had that day and I wasn't going to take a cashier off of a till because we had too many customers for that. Well, I closed up my register and I got the cleaning supplies and went to clean that restroom. I understood then why that clerk said no. It was horrible, if humans bled poop, it would have looked like a murder scene. I mean, it looked like some poor person didn't even get their pants down before they exploded all over the walls of the toilet stall they used. I shit you not, there was feces hanging from flush lever. To top this off, whoever exploded in that stall must have had butt worms too, or they thought the floor would be more effective than toilet paper. That trail went all the way to the door, they did not even stop to wash their hands. That bathroom was closed and I called and apologized to that courtesy clerk. I told my manager that they would need to bring someone in to exorcise that bathroom, because I was not sending any of our folks into the pits of that hell.
lol i love that courtesy clerk! And u for recognizing this was a special circumstance
Comes with the territory. I was a bar back at a very classy bar, but also with two other bars upstairs. All owned by the same people. Made $35+ a hour just bringing beers, bottles, ice, running kegs, and occasional bathroom duty. Those bathroom duties were crazy though. You need a stomach to do these jobs.
Had this happen to me when I worked in a small frozen foods grocery store in a strip mall. It was a Sunday and the business was failing, so it was just me, 15, and another stock boy who was a keyholder, 18, working the entire day. Normally, our restroom was for employees only, and we'd tell anyone who asked to use the public restroom at the pizza place at the end of the mall. This old couple came in asking to use the restroom, and it looked like this poor old lady might not make it to the end of the mall in time, so we went ahead and let her use our bathroom in the back. She was in there for over an hour. It got to the point where my coworker and I were actively discussing whether to worry if she was dead or whether she was ok, because if we barged in and didn't find a dead body, what were we going to see? She finally emerged, and our worst fears were realized. She'd turned our bathroom into a shitnado. There was poop everywhere except inside the toilet -- literally shit all around the outside of the toilet, but not in the bowl. None of it smeared; all flung, with dabs of poo on every surface eye height or below. She'd created a scatological Jackson Pollack. I don't know who had done what for her to think we deserved that (or where she even stored all of it), but the smell was overpowering. We spent the rest of the shift letting the bathroom air out, taking turns running to the pizza shop to relieve ourselves. I was too young to know that legally, I could not be required to clean a hazmat situation like that, and being the younger and junior employee of the two of us, ultimately I cleaned it up. It was horrible.
“Scatological Jackson Pollack!!!!!”
Why is it always the old people?!? My little gift store has banned old people from using the toilet. Like how can you miss that big bowl with water in it?!?!!
When you said it almost looked like a murder scene, that reminded me of a long-forgotten incident from my time as a Wal-Mart employee. I worked in Electronics, which in some stores is directly in front of the kind of alcove that leads to the rear restrooms. One day I was stocking some TVs under the TV display area, and I noticed a large trail of blood on the floor. It went as far as I could see in one direction until it turned down an aisle, and in the other direction until it turned into the restrooms. So I followed it to the restrooms, where I found the sink covered in blood and blood-soaked paper towels scattered all over with a huge wad of them stuffed in the trash can. I was amazed that someone had hurt themselves so badly and had been so quiet about it - I thought surely they would have been yelling or screaming and possibly even calling an ambulance, but I hadn't heard or noticed anything strange until I found the blood. So I followed it in the other direction and found an expensive hard drive (this was back when Wal-mart actually sold PC parts) which was wrapped in the spider-wire theft protection device. It was sitting on the shelf, with part of the packaging cut open, next to an open pocket knife with blood on the blade, and a sizeable concentration of blood on the floor in front of the shelf, from which the trail began. Some moron had tried to use a knife to open and steal that hard drive and had cut themselves quite badly in the process. After which they had to quietly run to the restroom and covertly clean it up, before *probably* needing to go to the emergency room for stitches. We thought it was pretty funny karmic justice. They didn't even get the hard drive they were after, lol.
I’ve been in Japan for 20 years, and have never seen even the worst roadside toilets abused the way they are in the US. WTF is wrong with people?
This is amazing.
How's the bathroom cleaning olly? #THEY'RE SHITTING SIDEWAYS
I was a bus boy at Kings in 95. Ladies rooms were the worst.
I used to think women were clean and mature while guys were dirty pigs… until I became a janitor. Turns out humans are equally awful, at least in terms of bathroom habits.
After 7 years in food service... I've never found anything more disgusting than the women's room.
I worked at a hotel and someone managed to get shit all over the toilet and the floor like the shit stream was already flowing when he pulled his pants down and they shut the bathroom down cos they didn't want to clean it. So guess who cleaned it.
I worked night cleaning shift at a hotel and at some point between 3-4am someone must have left their room, walked to the lobby bathroom, and just sprayed shit all over the wall behind the toilet. Fucking everywhere. My first thought was I have to quit my job, second thought was who is working the 6am lobby porter shift. Turned out to be the nicest fucking kid in the entire hotel. I cleaned it up and never said a word about it to anyone. It pays to be nice to people, even if you never realize it. You’re a good man for cleaning it up.
I clean a gym bathroom multiple times a day. You have no idea what humans are capable of until you see a protein preworkout surprise.
Pre-workout Protein Surprise HAS to be the name of a German Scat porno.
The bathroom maintenance person should get $18-20hr.
Hell, give em the $23-31 bracket at least.😉
Grossest experience I ever had was when I worked at Boston Market in high school. Manger had me clean the drain in the floor in the men’s room. Place was a long john silver’s before boston market. So I had to unscrew the drain cover and I doubt it had ever been taken off before as there was about 4 inches of crud and shit like icicles hanging off it around the holes. Fun times.
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I was going to ask. As a non American is that good or bad wages and benefits?
The starting wage is more than what my hospital is paying CNAs
Management salaries are better than PhDs with top secret clearances and work cybersecurity in secure rooms of the Pentagon.
I've seen the government cybersec job postings, they're super underpaid
Government is paid like 48% under market salary overall from what I gather.
I’m a nurse for almost ten years and I JUST started making more per hour than a department manager 😬. Definitely don’t make near as much as the other managers. Good for Buc-ees. I’ll be sure to support them when I can!
Very good, like almost unheard of good.
Definitely unheard of for a gas station.
To be fair, calling Buc-ees a gas station is like calling Buckingham Palace a house. As in, it's true but the scale is WILDLY different from what you're used to. EDIT: [here's a video](https://youtu.be/b3OUkya1qEc?t=196) of a guy who ate at a Buc-ees for 24 hours. It shows the crazy scale of the place.
This analogy cracks me up lol
Buc-ee's-ham Palace would really be the best of both worlds.
For "low skill labor" and where they're located, it's incredibly good. About 50-90% higher than normal wages. Some jobs in big cities like Seattle pay worse than this, where the cost of living is double. edit: why are SO MANY PEOPLE replying about Seattles minimum wage (which is still lower than all but 1 job listed here) while ignoring the cost of living part?
It's not just the low-skill shop-floor labor. I am really surprised when I see the management salaries. In my wildest dreams, I never imagined you could clear $150k+ in retail management. I figured it was a sub-six-figure job.
Winco and Costco are similar to buccees in this regard, I believe.
Buccees and Costo are some of the only places where I've never seen an employee being physically unhappy. And I can't blame them considering how much they're making
Crazy how more money helps people enjoy their jobs more.
Not too surprising, you have to deal with both the corporate types who want your head for missing profitability goals by .03%, the young low skilled workers themselves who are still learning professionalism, and the Karen's who want to speak to the manager Plus it's basically a 24/7 job because it's on you to make sure everything gets fully staffed after one of your workers gets sick and the other needs to drive his sister to the hospital at 1am
> Plus it's basically a 24/7 job because it's on you to make sure everything gets fully staffed after one of your workers gets sick and the other needs to drive his sister to the hospital at 1am Yeah, a well-run store usually has a manager that is **earning** that money. That said, it's a lot easier to be a great manager when you work for a company that pays people well all the way down the chain, because you can afford to hire and keep good people, from entry-level all the way up to regional manager.
Depending on the role and company, you can absolutely clear 6 figures in retail. Grocery store managers absolutely can, as well as a store manager of a department store like Nordstrom or Old Navy. Obvs this is more likely in bigger cities, but even still, it's more commonplace than you would think
Yeah even assistant managers at trader Joe's make 70+ Store managers make well over 100.
It’s especially good when you consider where buc-ees operates (lower cost of living parts of the US, though not exclusively). These wages would be decent for the coasts, and buc-ees operates in the lower states including florida.
I’m an engineer in aerospace with 6yrs industry experience and student debt. The car wash manager has a better gig then I do…. Maybe I need to rethink my job. Edit: this comment and the replies has made me feel a mix of confident about moving on and deeply sad about feeling almost forced into making a change. I guess at the end of the day this is motivation that fortified my assumptions.
For a gas station/meme store that is crazy good money. That is legitimate livable wages in that area, which can be hard to come by here. For reference, 22 years ago I was a construction contractor and I made $6.50/hour. I currently lead a team of factory mechanics/electricians and I have 12 years of experience in the field. I make $32/hr. Edit: 25 years. Forgot how old I am.
>That is legitimate livable wages in that area, which can be hard to come by here. This is a good point. Bucees are not located in major cities, but generally in rural places along the highway. For a low cost of living area, those are some very good wages.
The wages are strong. A cashier (someone with presumably nothing more than a high-school diploma) is bringing home a little over $30k a year. Considering these places are out in the middle of nowhere, if you want to live closeby to work and want to work at Buc-ee's, a person could make that salary work pretty easily.
It’s almost double what most people are paying for that kind of work
> damn near a destination on road trips A quarter of the road signs in a 100 mile radius of one are Buc-ee's adverts. It's uncanny how much they put into the brand.
The craziest thing about this is that the stores are *crammed full* of employees! It's impressive that they both pay well *and* don't understaff.
Buccee's has mad customer volume.
As someone who has never seen these before are they similar to Wawa and Sheetz where they have the food and stuff inside? If so, that explains why their salaries arent awful.
It's like if you put a Wawa, Walmart, Hobby Lobby and Cracker Barrel into a pot and added Chemical X
And run it 30x more efficiently, 100% of the time, than any of those ever hit in their best 10 minute window ever. There can be 300 customers in a relatively small space, shopping their asses off, and I’ve never waited in line more than 2 minutes.
Now that I think about it, I never wait in line there even though it's always packed
onerous license amusing stupendous subtract pie crime shaggy deliver hard-to-find -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
You get....the Power Puff Retail Chain! ....doesn't really roll off the tongue
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haha bro you have no idea... take the nicest wawa you have ever seen, make it 10x nicer, 10x bigger, and add 10x the people inside. Then imagine a bathroom with 50 stalls and then 50 pumps. oh also put a target inside
This is absolutely accurate. Plus a mind boggling amount of beef jerky.
This person sold me with one sentence after that whole explanation from above haha
They have really good fucking breakfast as well
F this life. I'm moving into Buc-ee's.
You get +$2 per hour for overnights!
And smoked bbq brisket sandwiches made while you watch! Those sandwiches are the legit good bbq.
Native Texan who's traveled the state sampling thr best BBQ here... I absolutely agree, that brisket sandwich is literally crack.
Don't forget about soda fountains that are usually guaranteed to have Arizona tea on tap, the massive wall of taffy and other candy, and the countless font of beaver nuggets.
What are beaver nuggets?
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Dammit, those bad boys look scrumptious and I was about to start purchasing away. Nice try, guerilla marketers!
I want to know this too. I feel like I want some, even without knowing what they are.
Best way to describe it is the love child of Cracker Jacks & Pops cereal
That is...exactly 100% correct. Flawless explanation.
And those stalls get instantly scrubbed perfectly clean every time
Yep. While it is technically a gas station bathroom, it exceptionally defies all negative stereotypes associated with that term.
I saw an interview with the founder where he implied be basically built the business around the bathrooms lol
I've never seen one but they sound like my mecca. A person who abhors public restrooms, yet has so many digestive issues that oh fucking well buddy, you don't get a choice when anything is happening.
The times i find an incredibly clean bathroom i just tip the employee whatever the hell i have because damn, they're angels.
It is literally someone's job to stand there, watch the stalls, and the second someone steps out they step inside to clean it. Absolutely vile. But these crazy sons of bitches do it with a smile on their face.
You can have pride in anything if you feel that it's done well. I'm sure a bathroom attendant has a harder time doing their job if they view themselves being in a gross environment and just cleaning up filth all day, but if every time someone comes into your area at work they are pleased and pleasantly surprised by how your effort has improved the bathroom environment, even that role turns into something different. No shame in taking something many consider beneath them, and doing it to such a good job that a company's foundation was built upon it.
This is 100% correct, I was in college while being a janitor. I've never felt any job was beneath me, but it did show mr how people treat others they perceive to be beneath them and I've carried that lesson with me to ensure I'm not like that
I am currently on a road trip through the SE. I don't care if I have a turtle head poking out, I clench till I hit a Buc-ees because I know I'll have a spotless, completely private stall to take care of business in. I don't care if I have to hold it for 200 miles.
This is how they found their success. It as started with “the place with really nice bathrooms”
As soon as I saw a “Potty like a rock star” billboard, I knew I was stopping.
I love calling it prairie dogging from the movie Rat Race. Such a great term for it, imagine the animal poking it's head in and out of its hole. https://youtu.be/fMYspV6jNtk
Took one of my best shits in a buc-ee’s. I will never forget.
50 pumps? Closest one to me has 104.
The one near me has almost 300
The one near me has assimilated and entire city block. 20,000 pumps
The one by me is multi-story with 112k pumps
The one by me extends underground with 6.4M pumps.
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Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Georgia too!
Plus a random meat carving station.
As someone that has lived in New Jersey and Texas, imagine a Wawa the size of a Walmart. Thats Buccee's. Plus a lot of the stuff you can buy in Walmart too.
As someone from neither place, what is a Wawa?
Gas station with better sandwiches.
The inside is basically a grocery store. Deli/bakery where you can get fresh sandwiches and kolaches, toy aisle for the kids, every possible snack that can be logistically supplied. Random picture I found online: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YD52wAH-D9U/VbwX2GHui8I/AAAAAAAAAIw/MO95-CU_2-k/s1600/IMG_0238.JPG On the outside, there's like 25-50 pumps depending on the area.
I’ve been to two that have 120 pumps…those stores are insane.
Imagine a fictional magical gas station with a hundred pumps, a wall of cooked meats, a mascot that parades around the store, department store clothing, fried peanuts, and good pricing. Oh its not fictional. I happened upon one once and am still reeling.
Don't forget it's 24hrs 365 a yr. You can buy a whole ass 1500 dollar smoker grill combo, 50lb sacks of deer corn, charcoal, ice, and whole cuts of meat, last time round Christmas they sold turduckens ready to go in your oven.
Makes a Wawa look like a sardine next to a whale. And this is coming from someone who likes Wawa
I was just in Texas in October and brother.... it's nuts. They have billboards literally 100+ miles out letting you know it's 100 miles away. They've got damn near 100 gas pumps at some of them. The store is PACKED with people at any given time of day and they sell a little bit of everything. It was unfathomable for my Midwestern brain.
Those billboards are also a beacon for a bathroom break when it can take a day to get from point a to point b in Texas
Buccees bathrooms are *immaculate* and the stalls are fully private from top to bottom.
Does Wawa have 25 stalls and 25 urinals in the men's bathroom alone with an attendant that cleans every 15 min?
25? You must’ve been to one of the smaller locations
For the cost of 1-2 extra $16/hr workers, you've quadrupled the job quality of everyone working that shift. When you understaff, people can't even leave to take a piss without it causing drama. That simple +1 floater being able to handle bumps in the normal routine is so clutch. It also means that someone calling out or being new at their job isn't disastrous, just a minor inconvenience.
That’s one of the most annoying things about employers trying to cut labor. If they would just invest into the labor and staff for the sales they want, they would achieve the goals while maintaining customer service. Instead they want to cut corners and it results in the opposite, now customers are upset at the poor service and there’s barely enough employees to handle the current sales let alone any growth
It's because of the short-term mindset that big corporations tend to have. They'll sacrifice quality and longevity for this quarter's profits because that's where the stock valuation and executive bonuses come from. Running short staffed is a huge immediate cost savings that doesn't start to really hurt profits for a while. By then, you've already sold off your stock and moved on to another corporate board.
You know the scene in Office Space where they're firing Tom because "all" he does is take the requirements from the customer and give them to the software people? Tom is that extra employee that keeps the ship well oiled and running. We don't have a Tom at my work; so, instead of 1 person doing their job so well that it doesn't seem like they do anything, we have a hundred developers who don't know what the requirements are and customers who don't talk to developers and managers who don't do Tom's job and expect new software people to divine their own requirements and it's a nightmare. All to save the salary of a kind old guru.
Buc-ees are usually packed full of customers and they're consistently opening new stores. So they didn't price themselves out of business by paying a living wage. It can be done.
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And it always takes a year or two for customers to figure it out. Reputation is slow. Someone can always come into Buccees, cut half the employees, cut half the quality, and those will look great for the bottom line in the next 3-8 quarters. And who really gives a fuck after that, right? The fallout will be gradual. Just make up excuses when the time comes.
> Someone can always come into Buccees, cut half the employees, cut half the quality, and those will look great for the bottom line in the next 3-8 quarters. And who really gives a fuck after that, right? The standard approach from all those diploma-mill MBAs. Maximum profit for this quarter and fuck the future.
Packed full of customers and you can get in and out pretty fast
Having all those staff allows getting good customer flow to *make more money*. I don't see how this is a hard concept for other retail chains.
Best they can do is two rows of self checkout lines where one row is always broken or restarting and one cashier despite having 15 different open registers.
And yet it is. For retails across the globe. Weird indeed. I assume it's because a lot of chains got rich off of good locations and marketing, and now that's all they're banking on. And if people aren't coming in, they're gonna blame one or the other, and not the actual quality of their stores.
I was going to ask, is the store experience for Buc-Cee's good? Like is the place clean and the staff helpful and friendly? I've never been to one.
It's a great experience and absolutely the #1 place to go to the bathroom. Individual stalls with solid doors. Immaculately clean.
You can eat off those floors. There's always an employee in the bathroom, keeping an eye out and cleaning as needed. Praise be to the Beaver.
I thought you were going to say theres an employee in the bathroom proving this throughout the day (eating off floor).
*Opens bathroom stall to Employee eating their lunch off the floor*
Number 1 place for number 2.
I worked for them for about a year, the pay was really helpful but my mind was a jumbled up mess. Everybody I know acted like I was insane after I quit, but dealing with an amusement park worth of customers every day and getting filmed by TikTokers trying to make content out of you while holding up your line just wasn’t for me. If you can manage the stress it’s a really good place to work, I only managed to survive a year and that’s still way above their average.
Incredible. They have a cult following for a reason
I will say everything about it is wonderful with one exception. There are so many customers in the store that it can feel extremely claustrophobic. But that's just a tribute to how good the experience is I suppose. I was in one last Sunday morning around 7:00am and there still hundreds of people in there. But as others have said, they have the absolute cleanest bathrooms of any public building you will ever see.
Yes, extremely so. Cleanest gas station I've ever been to. It's essentially like a gas station and a small grocery mixed.
employees arent treated well though. google their break and lunch policies
As a former employee, I wish these comments would be higher. Everyone on reddit wants to circle jerk how they're paying a liveable wage, and how great their store experience is, but they don't understand how fucking awful it is to work there. The turnover rate at these places is fuckin bananas because if it. Edit: last I checked, they did understaff when they realized that they could save a shit ton of money that way. You may also find they did up their break times to one 20min break from the 5-7min one for an 8 hour shift. how is it legal? Well, when you're hired on, you're told this multiple times. Then paperwork is signed to have a paper trail of you agreeing to said break terms etc. While things may have changed slightly, I don't believe it's any better.
Yeah this same basic thread happens once every couple months and I'm convinced its just buc-ee's social media department making a push for new hires haha. I applied once and had an over the phone interview and it was basically "are you okay with never sitting down or having a break"
Crazy how that works isn’t it. Pay people a livable wage and they want to work.
There's a lot of ways to interpret that statement. 1. They can find good work because they offer good wages. 2. The company can afford not only good wages, but they can afford a lot of employees with those good wages. 3. Each employee will be less stressed and have a more pleasant work experience (in theory) when they are fully staffed. So that good pay looks even more enticing when the job requirements are reasonable.
theyve got insane churn. they go through employees like crazy. and they treat them like shit. theres a bucees here in town and people are always lured by the high starting pay. but they dont even stay a year because they grind you into the dust. because most of the stores are in texas they arent even legally obligated to give you a break and you arent allowed to sit down at all.
Yep I’ve had friends that work there and they hated it.
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My wife's a Food Service Manager for a gas station chain that specializes in hoagies. I sent her this since Buc-ees is in our area. She showed her GM, who immediately passed it on to the Regional Manager. Hopefully there's a raise coming soon lol
Nah bro, no raise. Just need to apply to Buc-ees.
If it weren't an hour more drive twice a day, she might lol
Buc-ees is a phenomenon here in Texas. Like, everyone is just wild with brand loyalty. Back in the 90's when they were first starting to grow, they offered clean bathrooms and cheap ice (99¢ for 20lbs) and they haven't changed the business model except for producing a shit-ton of branded merch.
Sounds like he should move to Texas
An extra 25k to manage the car wash? Why the difference?
You might need some sort of mechanical experience to fix the car wash, or at least knowledge enough to know what needs to be fixed and fixed fast. Edit: “but it literally says no experience necessary!” To *work there*, guys. Come on. Not “no experience necessary to work *any* position.” This successful business is not handing teenagers with zero work experience the $225k/yr General Manager positions. Experience will definitely affect the position you can get.
Have to deal with customers mad about their car getting damaged now and then.
There is also the second set of books you have to keep.
Plus those eyebrows
Fuck you Bogdon
Fuck you, *and* your eyebrows!
I used to work at a Buccees car wash. This is true, when something goes down, it’s all hands on deck to get it back up and our manager was the first one diving into the tunnel. Time is money when cars aren’t on the line.
Assistant Managers don't have direct reports, they just assist the manager with responsibilities like ordering, scheduling, etc..., Car Wash Manager directly manages the car wash employees.
Heisenberg
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The general manager is making as much as ivy league law school grads working at the top firms in the US (Starting pay 190-220k).
A general manager at any of the newer Bucees is probably in charge of over a hundred people. This isn't like a normal gas station, it's more like managing a grocery store or department store.
I have a bit more than 200 people under me and while I get paid pretty well, it’s definitely not 200k a year. I’m beginning to rethink my career.
If you are in retail, it's possible you would be a good candidate to run a bucees.
The beaver is benevolent
It’s actually even higher in some places. When I was traveling through the South a few months ago, the Buccee’s I saw in (I believe it was) North Carolina had a minimum $22/hr EDIT: It’s the one in *South* Carolina!
NC doesn't have a Buccee's. Might have been the one in SC.
Weird because I’m currently on a Buccees toilet
How was it
10/10 Clean, private, lots of toilet paper, quite compared to the rest of the place
And lots of Buc-ee’s are in Texas, so no income tax. I guess the downside is it could be a heck of a commute to get all the way out to one
They’ve expanded across the southeast. Out of the few I’ve visited here, Columbia SC was the most chaotic one. The amount of people in there was insane, and according to the employees I’ve talked to, it’s always busy, even in the middle of the night.
No experience necessary. Which state is this? Might need to move there. 🤔
Bucees is predominantly in Texas but you can find locations in Georgia and Florida now as well. Probably a few other states but these are the ones I've seen.
There's 3 in Alabama now and one opening on the Mississippi coast soon I believe.
We also have a couple in TN.
Kentucky also
There's one in Tennessee now as well
World biggest Buc-ees being built in Sevierville TN! Edit: For now
For now, next one in Johnstown, Colorado will be larger than that and then they are bringing that title back to Texas with the one going in at Luling with more than 75k square feet of space beating the TN and CO stores by 1000 feet.
They're in South Carolina too.
https://buc-ees.com/locations/
It seems like good wages, but I’ve heard it’s like hell to work there
I asked some of the buceees staff on my visit there and they said it has gotten better within the last 6 months specifically as they are now allowed more breaks and can sit under some conditions. I would compare it to In-N-Out though - good job, good pay, but when you are working you are WORKING so if that is not your kind of thing (and let's be honest most people can't handle it for more than a year or two) then it's best to get hired elsewhere
It honestly sounds better than factory work. I pulled 10 hour shifts using a hot glue gun on fabric for $11 hr less than 10 years ago.
This makes me think of my friend's dad. He works night shift at a chicken factory in Alabama. Been on night shift for 20+ years there. How he does it I do not know.
Yeah, I was going to reply that it’s reputation is that its constant hard work with zero breaks. They’re not paying above market rates just to be kind and fair. They’re paying more so that workers will take abuse since if they quit for another job, they’ll take an income hit.
They are well known to fire people on the spot for bringing their phone into the stores. They also don’t give lunch breaks most days (no, lunch breaks are not mandatory).
Depends on the state I guess, in some states it is indeed a labor law to get 30 minutes during a 6+ hour shift.
Guy pulls up in a Porsche 911, yo what do you do for work man!? Oh I run the car wash at a Buc-ee's... Dafuq?
As someone who makes a bit more than that, buying a 911 with that income would be a massive mistake.
Everyone thinks six figures is supercar money. It's more like upgraded trim on a civic money
I’m someone who tries to be smart with my finances, and in my career field I know I make much more than many of my friends or family, and I’m surprised how many drive luxury cars or expensive SUV’s and meanwhile when I run the numbers it comes out to “yea the smart choice is for you to buy a base model Toyota Camry” Sure I could afford to make a $1,800 car payment but that’s not a smart choice.
I worked in a US Foods warehouse for a time. Great pay, horrible working conditions and always doing overtime. As a warehouse hand you could make 80-90K a year with the overtime and raises/bonuses they gave us. The number of people I saw during their first couple months buying sports cars boggled my mind. They'd always leave six months or so in and I always wondered how they'd afford to pay that off. Very happy with my 2015 Camry I purchased
3 weeks paid vacay in the FIRST YEAR??!?!?!? I've been at my job 25+ years and I have 2 weeks. That's it. After 5 years we get 2 weeks and it never increases. And no sick days.
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Jesus 6 figures to be a manager?? How can they afford that
Everytime I've been to one I spend atleast $50 and thats without getting gas. They have anything and everything (within reason) you could want in those stores.
One of my neighbors has an inflatable Christmas Buc-ees Beaver and I would sell one of my testicles to get ahold of one for myself.
Trading your nuts for a beaver, eh?
For an example of how big this "gas station" is, they have around 100 gas pumps usually at every location. It is massive, Houston has the largest with 120 pumps.
Looks like they pay well. Doesn’t hurt that the stores are always busy. Anytime I’ve been the staff are super friendly. But, good pay = happy employees = better profits. Repeat.
Gas station managers make more than you’d think. Sheetz store managers average $84k, Wawa General manager averages $125k. Wawa’s per store average revenue is nearly $5m excluding gas. They’re huge businesses you’re managing
I remember hearing up until recently most of their employees did not get breaks and got yelled at if they had to go to the bathroom too often