I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Buc-ee, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.” — Percy Shelley, "Buc-ee’s", 1819 edition
This is at a Buc-ees. This golden beaver is their mascot. Southerners love them some Buc-ees. The reason is that they are awesome for reasons too numerous to mention.
People in the South talk about Buc-ees like New Yorkers talk about fashion pop-ups.
OP is referring to this as the “Golden Calf” of the South. And since as the South is foreign to the leftiest of the leftys, you have the joke.
Still lost, but happy to say the joke is on me if that makes some shithead feel better.
I’ll try:
OP is pointing out the cultural/political divide between the North and South in the US or just how the South is different from a lot of the US. They’re “foreign” to outside eyes.
Southerners treat Buc-ee’s like a religion almost with their obsession. Like some people get cultish about Chick-fil-a.
Ergo the symbol of Buc-ee’s, the beaver, is an idol of that foreign religion (buc-ee’s worship) as viewed from the outside.
The idolatry is a reference to Moses coming down from the mountain when he got the 10 commandments and all that to find people worshipping a golden calf instead of god. The South is very religious…or at least presents that image.
So a bunch of stuff happening in that short OP comment. Got the religious south worshipping a beaver for a store that people outside the south don’t know about or understand the cultish following it has.
It’s a gas station chain in Texas called Buc-ee’s. Some Texans freak out about it in a huge way. I have lots of Buc-ee branded apparel as a result of my brother-in-laws passion, which he’s instilled in my niece who now insists on more shirts for her aunt and uncle.
I’m cool with it as they pay everyone well above minimum wage. If you want to fan out over a corporation, you could do much worse.
You could also do a whole hell of a lot better. The owners are massive Texas GOP donors. Over a million to Abbott alone. I'll go to my local Pakistani-owned Stop 'N Go any day of the week.
Considering the authoritarian way buc-ee’s seems to treat (some?) employees from the sound of some online chatter it meshes nicely with the whole anti-labor, we-own-you, right wing view of employees.
https://www.scrapehero.com/location-reports/Buc-ee%27s-USA/
47 locations in 8 states. 34 of them are in Texas.
I think it's fair to describe it as primarily a Texas experience.
It's a really neat store, but after my wife got a job there and learned the rules, she didn't do a single shift. I've literally never heard of a worse chain to work at.
Pay is only part of the picture.
Crap shifts and strict employee rules are the other side of the equation.
I've never seen a Buc-ees but I have read they are really strict, like look at your phone once and you're fired on the spot, so maybe the exchange for the higher pay is participation in a workplace culture beyond the normal levels of controlling.
Il dunno, as someone with some convenience store work in their past I am curious if anyone has first hand experience?
Checking around it seems there are complaints of not getting any breaks or only getting one 5-minute break or up to 12 minutes, seems all over the place and depending on the whims of the manager/location. Not allowed to sit, you have to stand. Clocking in late by a minute is a write up, 3x and you’re fired. Allegedly some locations discourage chatter among employees? Non-existent lunch breaks taken standing up. “Non-existent” because apparently calling something a break under Texas law means they business has to offer more to employees or something. Can’t seem to locate any managers’ complaints, so what I’m getting seems often typical for a lot of front line employees in a business like this.
Seems to vary pretty wildly between locations. Some being more laid back, others being hyper-controlling. Overall it seems like an average retail place to work (with the caveat of shitty Texas labor rules) that treats base employees pretty crappy for the money they make. I wouldn’t want to work in one of those authoritarian businesses that treats you like they own everything about you while on the clock.
We just got a Bucc-ee's near my city. I have no idea what it is with trashy midwesterners and giant stores, but they treat it like the Bass Pro of gas stations. Every day I see at least one person with a Bucc-ee's hoodie or shirt.
Like why? It's just crappy convenience store food, only slightly better.
As someone who lives in Texas, this shit is the weirdest cult. Never seen so many people obsess over mediocrity. I really don't get it.
I think mediocrity is the point, the irony of worshipping shitty commercial gods. Unless people actually love that place, in which case it's weird
You mean you haven't seen all the rednecks and such walking around sporting their Bucc-ee's gear?
Statues like this appeared in Agents of Mayhem which takes place in Laos. Is this South Korea?