Wawa Vs Buc-Ee's: Which Convenience Store Is Better?

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Any gas station can fuel your car, but the best gas stations also provide fuel for the drivers. Of course, you can find chips and jerky at even the most modest gas station, but a few, such as the cult-favorite chains Buc-ee's and Wawa, have become food destinations in their own right. For fans, the idea of stopping at Buc-ee's without grabbing a brisket sandwich or getting gas at Wawa without picking up a hoagie prepared to one's specifications would be as unthinkable as going to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower.

Texas-based Buc-ee's and Pennsylvania-based Wawa have long been regional businesses with loyal followings of locals and visitors lucky enough to discover them. Like many things Texan, Buc-ee's most striking feature is its size — each outlet has around 100 gas pumps, as well as indoor shopping space comparable in size to a well-stocked supermarket. Buc-ee's biggest store, in Luling, Texas, has a footprint of 75,593 square feet. Wawa's stores are more modest in size, but its food offerings are anything but. Each store is staffed with prep cooks at the ready to make the fresh sandwiches the chain is known for. And with both chains expanding their presence outside their original home territories, you're increasingly likely to find one of them near you. Here's what to expect when you visit, and what each one does best.

Buc-ee's fans will tell you that it's not just a gas station or even a supersized convenience store — it's an experience. And a big part of the experience is in the middle of every store: follow the rhythmic sound of knives hitting a cutting board and you'll find the Texas Round Up, the in-house take-out barbecue. There, you'll see teams of prep cooks cutting meat and assembling sandwiches, and if you're lucky and arrive when a fresh brisket is being sliced, you'll hear someone yell the signature cry, "Fresh hot brisket on the board!" The stores don't actually smoke brisket on-site, though — the 12-14 hour smoking process happens at a central facility, and briskets are delivered to individual stores daily.

If you're in a hurry, you won't have to wait for a sandwich. Heated cases hold piles of pre-made, pre-wrapped brisket and pulled pork sandwiches ready for the taking. The chopped brisket sandwich is Buc-ee's best-selling food item, followed by the much-respected sliced brisket sandwich. But much as some fans love it, serious barbecue enthusiasts will say that Buc-ee's is fine — for a gas station. Compared to Texas's best barbecue joints, Buc-ee's comes up short. Compared to whatever's on offer at places like 7-Eleven, though, it's a clear winner.

You won't find barbecue at Wawa. What you will find, however, is an endlessly customizable sandwich menu, with offerings ranging from cheeseburgers to paninis to hoagies. On offer are hot and cold fillings, ranging from basic ham and turkey to meatballs to classic Italian subs, featuring a variety of meats and cheeses. In addition, you can choose from a large number of sauces, garnishes, and bread options to make your sandwich exactly the way you want. Place your order at an electronic kiosk inside the store, then head to the long counter where cooks prepare orders as they come in.

This is no doubt a slower process than picking up a brisket sandwich at Buc-ee's, but the payoff is significant. Not only do you get a sandwich with the exact ingredients you crave, you get lots of them — one reviewer found that her Wawa sandwich had nearly twice as much meat as a sandwich from Buc-ee's. It was also fresher, while the bread in the pre-made Buc-ee's sandwich reportedly tasted a bit stale.

While food lovers like to compare Buc-ee's and Wawa, they're not really directly comparable. For starters, their business models are different. Buc-ee's has huge service stations and stores that cater to travelers and are typically located off major highways. Wawa caters to urban and suburban commuters, with regular-sized gas stations in the middle of busy cities and suburbs. This could explain the difference in their food offerings. Buc-ee's excels at exactly the sort of food to bring on a road trip. 

Aside from its famed barbecue and a good range of sandwiches, you can find beef jerky in dozens of flavors and a wall filled with Buc-ee's branded chips and crunchy snacks, with Beaver Nuggets — sweet puffed corn snacks named for Buc-ee's buck-toothed mascot, which are a favorite of regular customers. You'll also see cases full of cookies, doughnuts, and other fresh-baked goods.

If you're looking for something more wholesome to eat on the road, you can also get individual portions of old-fashioned banana pudding as well as salads and fruit cups in convenient covered plastic takeaway cups. Wawa, of course, has chips and snacks, but a much smaller assortment, and nothing you can't find elsewhere. So for a unique snack experience, head to Buc-ee's.

If there's one thing people buy at gas stations besides gas, it's coffee — even the most minimalist station will likely have a pot on hand to revive drowsy commuters. And for many busy drivers, the quality of the coffee is immaterial. As long as it has plenty of caffeine (and there's enough sugar and/or flavored creamer on hand to cover up any burnt or off flavors), it's fulfilled its end of the bargain. This is not the case, however, at Buc-ee's or Wawa. Both stores showcase their coffee and offer a range of hot and cold coffee drinks. Buc-ee's even has a full-on coffee house, Buc-ee's Beanery, in Lake Jackson, Texas. 

The coffee at both venues has enough devoted fans that the stores offer branded ground coffee for sale, so shoppers can bring the Wawa or Buc-ee's coffee experience home with them. Buc-ee's reveals little about the source of its coffee, only sharing that Buc-ee's House Blend Medium Roast contains 100% premium Arabica beans. Wawa, on the other hand, openly shares that it sources its coffee beans from farms certified by the Rainforest Alliance, an organization that promotes sustainable farming practices that protect both farm workers and the environment. So if sustainability is a priority for you, Wawa Ground Coffee takes the win.

Both Wawa and Buc-ee's proudly promote their coffee, and their menus are geared toward those who drink coffee for pleasure, not just for a buzz. Buc-ee's offers coffee in regular, medium, and dark roasts, along with a range of flavored drinks and even specialty drinks such as nitro cold brew. Wawa has similar variety.

Both stores have their fans. Internet commenters have praised Wawa's Cuban and dark roast, and Reddit users have invented their own go-to customized favorites, such as a "splash of cappuccino from the machine, hazelnut coffee, and creamer." Buc-ee's coffee also got good reviews, with YouTube coffee reviewer Distilled Brewed & Reviewed declaring their house blend coffee (which he brewed at home), crowd-pleasing with a good flavor. "This I'd probably drink on a road trip and get me a large," he said. Other reviewers, however, were less enthusiastic. One, after an extensive taste test, called Wawa's coffee inferior to that of 7-Eleven. And a naysayer on Reddit complained that Buc-ee's quality had gone downhill in recent years, saying, "I remember a few years ago the coffee was so good but now its trash."

So while both Wawa and Buc-ee's coffee have received mostly (but not universally) positive reviews, neither came out as clearly better than the other. Your best option is to try both and see which suits your personal tastes.

The first thing that strikes newcomers to Buc-ee's is the sheer size of the place. The huge floor of each shop is filled with shelves and racks featuring not just food, but branded Buc-ee's merchandise, road-trip staples such as tote bags and ice, and much more. Much, much more — very little of which you'd expect to find in a typical gas station.

In the off chance you're on your way to a deer hunt and forgot your deer corn, have no fear — Buc-ee's has you covered. And while you're buying deer corn, you can also pick up a deer feeder from Buc-ee's exclusive line of feeders to put your corn in. If you've always wanted to throw a crawfish boil, you can buy a tabletop that fits on top of a giant trash can, so guests can easily dispose of all those shrimp and crawfish shells and corncobs while they eat. So if you delight in serendipity and have lots of space in your trunk, head to Buc-ee's. But if you're a recovering impulse shopper trying to control your spending, steer clear.

Buc-ee's fans love the size and exuberance of the place, and there's a lot to take in. With store footprints nearly the size of football fields, a huge range of food and beverage choices, and even huge, frequently cleaned restrooms to freshen up in (50 stalls and 33 urinals in one of its stores), you have plenty of opportunities to explore and stretch your legs after hours on the road.

Unless you stay in your car, though, Buc-ee's is not the place for a solitary meditation break. If you go on weekends or at lunchtime, you can expect a crowd. Between loyal locals and travelers curious to see what all the buzz about Buc-ee's is about, you can probably expect lines for most popular items, as well as a lot of people just milling about. Fortunately, Buc-ee's stores are well-staffed, and employees do a good job of keeping things moving efficiently, but if you're uncomfortable with crowds and large spaces, Buc-ee's probably won't be fun for you.

Wawa stores, in contrast, are a tiny fraction of the size of Buc-ee's — newer ones have 5,547 square feet of retail space, versus 75,0000 square feet for the biggest Buc-ee's outlets. And since Wawa customers are generally there just to grab a sandwich and coffee (there's not much else to do), you can expect to see fewer people just hanging out, and fewer people in general.

While Buc-ee's has expanded its presence well beyond its home base in Texas, it hasn't abandoned its Texas roots. Its outposts in other states proudly maintain a strong Texan accent, which is part of the draw for visitors — if you're not already in Texas, a visit to Buc-ee's is like a short trip to a Texas theme park. For example, no matter which Buc-ee's you visit, the barbecue station will be called the Texas Round-Up. Even in states with proud barbecue traditions of their own, Buc-ee's serves up its Texas-style brisket. "I'm not going into your county and giving you what generations have done there," Buc-ee's barbecue director and award-winning pitmaster Randy Pauly told the News & Observer. "All I can do is what I do, and it's not what you're doing."

Visitors can also take even deeper dives into Texas culinary culture at Buc-ee's. At the bakery section, you can sample kolaches, a beloved pastry in Texas, introduced by the state's Czech immigrants. These round, puffy pastries, little known outside Texas, come stuffed with sweet or savory fillings, which can include meat, cheese, or fruit. Not hungry but still want to take a bit of Texas home with you? You can always splurge and get a bedazzled, rhinestone-encrusted cow skull. In sharp contrast, Wawa's regional roots only appear subtly in its menu, which is heavy on Northeastern favorites like Italian hoagies and meatball sandwiches.

Successful businesses rise to the top by offering compelling products or services. But in a competitive environment, many offer extra incentives to grab customers' attention, reel them in, and keep them coming back. Supermarket membership programs are one such perk. Irresistible, loss-leading bargains, such as Costco's famed $5 rotisserie chickens and $1.50 hot dogs, are another.

For many Wawa devotees, the store's hearty hoagies and paninis are reward enough. But to sweeten the deal for loyal customers, Wawa offers an app that allows them to accrue points for purchases — 10 points per dollar spent in the store and 5 points per dollar spent on gas. Users can use the points towards treats like smoothies, sandwiches, or discounts on gas. In addition, Wawa Rewards program members get to choose a gift on their birthday as well as access to special promotions the rest of the year. Buc-ee's, on the other hand, has no rewards program. You can get some discounts with a Buc-ee's credit card, but you'll need to join TEDCU, a Texas-based credit union (and have some official ties to Texas) to get a card.

Almost every gas station will have a small assortment of household and pantry supplies. Most will fall into the emergency supply category — unglamorous but useful items like antacids, canned soup, and instant noodles that one only buys at a gas station when pressed for time with a desperate need. 

You can also find such basic supplies at Buc-ee's, but their selection of pantry staples doesn't end there. While the nonperishable food offerings at most gas stations are intended to keep you alive until your next proper grocery run, the offerings at Buc-ee's include homey items such as jams and relishes you'll actually look forward to eating. And like most of Buc-ee's food, these store-branded treats — which include barbecue sauce, blueberry jalapeño jam, habanero salsa, black bean and corn salsa, and apple butter — have a distinct Texan accent. If you're on a road trip and plan to stay with friends along the way, they're distinctive and fun enough to make great host/hostess presents.

To assess the relative strengths of Buc-ee's and Wawa, I relied on information from the stores' websites, along with news articles and reviews from a range of sources, including YouTube reviews, Reddit discussions, blog posts, and articles from regional and national newspapers and magazines, along with restaurant and retail industry publications.

To a lesser extent, I turned to my own (admittedly limited) familiarity with the two stores. I've visited Buc-ee's stores a few times on road trips, but because of time constraints, I couldn't explore the store or sample the food as much as I would have liked. I can confirm, however, that the stores are wildly big, with a mind-boggling assortment of stuff. The barbecue smells great, and the restrooms are pristine. Wawa has only recently made inroads in my area, and thus far, I can only confirm that its gas prices are on par with other stations near me — but I'm really looking forward to trying a sandwich soon.