Convenience store on steroids, beloved down South, may be coming to NJ

Someday New Jersey might just learn what Beaver Nuggets are.

A mysterious billboard recently popped up on the northbound side of the New Jersey Turnpike near exit 8 by South Brunswick. It shows only an image of a cartoon Beaver wearing a cap and a U-turn arrow with the words “581 miles” and “Buc-ee’s” meaning you’d have to turn around and head south until the next Buc-ee’s nearly 600 miles away.

Why would the Texas-based travel center do this?

“We typically will, years in advance, start putting billboards in locations where we think our future customers will be,” said a spokesperson. 

They put up billboards in Florida almost a decade before opening there. It’s a way of getting people intrigued. A way of getting people wondering what they’re missing that's so good it's worth an out-of-state trip.

Loyal Buc-ee’s customers will tell you New Jersey is missing a lot. Their website says they hold world records in things like largest convenience store (they have one location at 74,707 square feet) and longest car wash (a 255 foot conveyor). Many of their travel centers have over 100 gas pumps. They brag about having gourmet food. Also the nation’s cleanest restrooms.

Oh and those Beaver Nuggets? It’s bags of puffed corn. No Beaver was harmed in the making of this snack.

If the vibe of Buc-ee’s seems too southern for their travel centers to work here, remember that New Jersey is a huge corridor state. Lots of traffic just passing through. A convenience store on steroids might be just what this state needs.

While it won’t be any time soon, the billboard has already been put up. And remember it took Florida a decade after the first sign went up. So yeah, it might not be until Barron Trump is president, but I bet you it will happen.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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