In South Alabama, it's this place. They have them all.
Buc-ee's is new to Alabama. This one is right off the I-10 in Robertsdale. Being a California boy, I'd never been inside a Buc-ee's. It was amazing. I've never seen such retail energy and this was on a Tuesday afternoon. The place was a frenzy of joyful purchasing. I don't mean that in a condescending, superior way, I mean that with genuine admiration and affection.
I didn't get a stuffed beaver, but I did get the Lodge battleship, their biggest skillet, a 15" monster. Buc-ee's had the entire line. Who knew?
I just realized I need to go back and get stuffed beavers for the granddaughter and the new tot next door.
3 comments:
I love cast iron skillets! They soak up abuse like nobody's business. I have one 9-inch that I bought when I first moved off campus in 1981, and used it for most everything for many years. I particularly like the fact that on the one hand it is well-seasoned enough that most things don't stick, and on the other hand when something does stick I can be as rough as I want scraping it off. I've used non-stick pans from time to time, and as far as I'm concerned the coating doesn't stay adequately non-stick long enough, and you have to treat them like kid gloves to keep them even that good.
I also have three other skillets (another 9-inch and two 6-inchers) that I inherited from my mother and grandmother; a round griddle for use on a regular stove burner; and just a few months ago I got an 18-inch rectangular griddle to use on the big griddle burner in the middle of our gas stove (I had been wanting one for a while to replace the coated-aluminum griddle that came with the stove, and the hardware store had it on sale for half-price, so I couldn't resist). And, since I've been baking all the bread for the family for several years now, they just gave me a cast-iron bread pan for father's day that works great.
I currently have more cast-iron than we strictly need, but when my daughters move out I will hand off some of the extra pieces to them. They also like cooking on cast iron.
I sometimes wonder how much of a problem the durability of their product is for Lodge. I mean, sure, I have a lot of their products, but I've accumulated them over a period of 45 years, and only actually purchased about half of them with the rest inherited. Once they get to the point where everyone who wants cast-iron pans has them, there isn't a lot of scope for repeat business. Not like the makers of non-stick aluminum pans, who can reasonably expect people to buy a new one every 5-10 years.
I'm told that Buc-ee's opened up a store in Ohio near/in a town called Beavercreek. They are now suing any store in the area that has a beaver as a logo.
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/business/2026/08/04/buc-ees-lawsuit-sparks-a-beaver-takeover-across-beavercreek-dayton-ohio-cities/91168885007/
Another evil 800lb gorilla. At least its not in high tech.
I remember when Lodge was camping gear, and reasonably priced at REI. Way back when REI was a store for camping.
I'm in a contrary mode today.
I'm also working on selling my MG (on the facebook evil empire). Heading out on a road trip to get the next toy car in about a week.
So, I had not previously heard of Buc-ee's, they evidently aren't anywhere close tho this far north. But I have seen beavers, and that logo is no beaver. Beavers don't have white chins and underbellies like that. The only largeish rodents I'm aware of that do have a white chin, are pocket gophers. And even they don't have that much white, that color scheme is more what I expect from a weasel. Hopefully, if Buc-ees sues other people for having a beaver logo, they can countersue that the Buc-ee logo isn't even a beaver.
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