⛽  Buc-ee's fills up

👋  Good morning. It’s never too late to reinvent yourself. Take it from Naoero, the Pacific island nation of 12k residents (and the world’s third-smallest country), which just officially changed its name from Nauru to restore the spelling and pronunciation used in its native language after decades of going by a name that’s easier for foreigners to say. So, if you’ve been considering a rebrand, take this as your sign.

NEWS FLASH 

👩‍🏫  School’s out… for human teachers? AI-powered Alpha Schools tells Axios it plans to expand from 12 to 50 campuses in 2026. The high-end schools — where tuition costs $45k-$75k annually — claim to reduce screen time and increase human interaction. How? Students spend no more than two hours each day learning core subjects from AI before shifting to life-skills workshops led by “guides” who motivate students and are paid at least $100k a year.

🦠  Cleaning up hospitals: Claryx emerged from stealth to help hospitals catch infections — which hit one in 38 patients and cost the US healthcare system up to $45B annually — before they spread. The startup’s novel approach sequences pathogen genomes and compares them to DNA collected from the air, surfaces, and wastewater in hospitals to spot healthcare-associated infections.

🐙  Good news for octopuses, bad news for Greek restaurants: Plans for the world’s first commercial octopus farm in Spain have been scrapped after years of public opposition and regulatory battles. The proposed $74.5m facility would have produced 3k metric tons of octopus meat annually, but critics argued confining millions of highly intelligent animals (research suggests they have the basics of sentience and can feel pain) posed serious ethical and environmental concerns.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

• Hungry hungry Claude: Anthropic reportedly struck a $10B, six-year deal with fledgling cloud startup Volta Infra, securing more computing power as the AI race heats up. 
  

• Watch your back, Nutella: Startup Peppertux, which says pistachios are "underrated and underrepresented" in US grocery stores, raised $2.35m to expand into 1.1k+ Target stores and launch at Kroger, H-E-B, and Albertsons.
  

• Data centers to go: Startup Runware unveiled a transportable modular data center that it says can be installed in days instead of months, offering a more flexible alternative to billion-dollar campuses. 
  

• Mounds of cash: MLB’s San Diego Padres officially sold to Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones for $3.9B, a record-high price for a baseball team. The sellers, the Seidler family, paid $800m for the team in 2012.

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THE BIG IDEA

How Buc-ee's is building a ruthless rest-stop empire

Cheap gas, spotless restrooms, brisket sandwiches: can't lose.

This trifecta may be the secret to success for Buc-ee's, the massive roadside rest stop chain with a beaver mascot and cult-like following.

Now with 56 locations across 13 states, the once-only-in-Texas megastore is quickly building across the US like an industrious beaver with 14 new locations.

Buc-ee's is transforming the look of the Great American rest stop with sprawling must-visit destinations that are less of a gas-and-go operation and more of an experience, per CNBC.

Beaver Nuggets galore

Even if you've never been to a Buc-ee's, you've probably seen videos of World Cup fans marveling at the spectacle.

Founded by Arch "Beaver" Aplin in 1982, Buc-ee's began with the promise of cheap ice and clean restrooms.

With new locations came larger footprints, walls of jerky, barbecue counters, housemade fudge, beaver-branded souvenirs, home decor, so many snacks — including the famous Beaver Nuggets (caramel-coated corn puffs) — and even buckets of bacon grease.

Buc-ee's snacks and merch have even inspired a secondary market.

The Texas-based chain takes pride in the "everything is bigger" mentality:

• World's largest convenience store at 75k square feet (Luling, TX)
  
• World's longest carwash at 255 feet (Katy, TX)
  
• Each store has ~100 gas pumps
  
• Estimated $50m to $100m in annual revenue per store
  
• Customers spend an average of $58.03 each visit

Its gas is also famously cheaper than competitors and serves as a loss leader to get people into the stores, which generate two-thirds of the revenue.

But don't expect to find any seats at Buc-ee's — grab your sugared nuts and get out.

It's not all fun and Beaver Nuggets

Other businesses have taken cues from Buc-ee's, creating massive travel centers — including Dolly Parton's Tennessean Travel Stop and Wally's — that emphasize food, merch, and entertainment, where gas is an afterthought.

But Buc-ee's isn't taking the competition lightly. In the past, the company has sued rivals like Bucky's and Chicks for alleged trademark infringement.

And now it's aggressively taking aim at other cartoon animal mascots. Though it's unclear who is confusing Mickey the Moose for Buc-ee the Beaver.

Meanwhile, Buc-ee's expansion plans have stirred up local resistance in Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, and elsewhere.

Not everyone is so easily won over by Beaver Nuggets and clean bathrooms.

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The naming wizard: What does a Swiffer, a Subaru Outback, and a BlackBerry have in common? They were all named by this guy. 

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Minutes of sitting inside the Do Hiemon Box that could help prevent heat stroke. The stainless-steel contraption, which is essentially a “human refrigerator” on wheels, was invented by Japanese vending machine manufacturer SDRS following a record number of heat stroke cases last year, per Dezeen.

According to the company, it provides “full-body cooling” at temperatures as low as five degrees Celsius while using half the energy of the average portable A/C unit, and could help factory and construction workers stay cool during “kokushobis” — a newly coined term meaning “cruel heat days” in Japanese. At a one-person capacity, it could make lunch breaks a little lonelier, but at least you won’t faint into your sandwich?

HOW YOU HUSTLE

You all are always up to cool things. Here’s our weekly feature on a Hustle reader building something big.

Founder: Brett Christoffel

Building: All Y’all’s Foods — plant-based jerky made from whole non-GMO soybeans, with protein, 8 grams of fiber, and zero cholesterol.

Edge: While most jerky brands compete on flavor, All Y’all’s is rethinking what jerky can be: a satisfying plant-based snack, topping, or recipe ingredient with the chew of the original.

Advice: “Stay close to your mission, but even closer to your customers. Listen carefully, adapt quickly, and do not confuse persistence with refusing to change.”

Working on something cool? Tell us here.

AROUND THE WEB

📅   On this day: In 1861, Abraham Lincoln imposed the first federal income tax — 3% on incomes of $800+.

🚗   That’s interesting: Compare vehicle dimensions.

🌀  Game: Mini mazes. 

📩   Newsletter: The Assist is a five-minute shortcut to leveling up your career.

🐂  Aww: A tiny cow.

SHOWER THOUGHT

Having a photographic memory must have been hard to explain before the invention of the camera. SOURCE

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Editing by: Sara "Time for a road trip" Friedman.

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