A Tennessee man says he’s done with Buc-ee’s for good after watching a young manager berate an elderly employee in the bathroom of the chain’s Sevierville location. The incident, which a TikTok user captured in a viral video, has sparked a wider conversation about how the beloved convenience store treats the people who work there.
The video comes from TikTok user Dave Headrick (@youareunique.life) and has racked up over 94,000 views, according to BroBible. Headrick described himself as a regular at the Sevierville Buc-ee’s, visiting nearly every day. That habit, he says, is now over.
What Headrick says he witnessed
Headrick says he was washing his hands when he noticed a manager, who looked to be around 25 years old, getting in the face of an older janitor he estimated to be around 65 or 70. The issue? A stack of paper towels that hadn’t been restocked yet.
“You’ve got this management kid, he’s like maybe 25, got his chest up to this old man holding paper towels, saying, ‘What’s this? What’s this?'” Headrick recounts in the video. The older worker pushed back, telling the manager to relax and that he’d get to it in a moment. The manager’s response: “No, I tell you to do something, you need to do it.”
Headrick says he spoke up to the manager on the spot. Shortly after, he claims he witnessed the same manager in another confrontation with a different employee, this one over brisket. That was enough to seal his decision.
“I don’t care what you pay your people over here; you don’t treat people like that. That is bull crap,” he said in the video. He also took a shot at the store’s outdoor setup, pointing out there isn’t a single bench or chair for customers. “No respect for your customers, no respect for your employees. You ain’t get my business no more,” he concluded.
What Buc-ee’s workers say about the job
The video touched a nerve because it lines up with what a lot of current and former employees have been saying for years. Buc-ee’s is famous for paying workers well, with assistant general managers earning around $125,000 per year according to job postings that have gone viral online. But the working conditions that come with that paycheck are a different story.
The company’s own website lists a strict dress code banning visible tattoos, piercings, and unnatural hair colors. Workers are expected on holidays and weekends, and Chowhound reports that employees can’t be even a minute late without it counting against them, with three infractions resulting in termination. Cell phones are banned on the floor entirely, with multiple former staff on Indeed saying they were fired or nearly fired for having a phone visible, even through a pocket.
On Glassdoor, Buc-ee’s sits at 2.6 out of 5 stars across over 1,200 reviews, which is 26% below the retail and wholesale industry average. The most common complaints center on micromanagement, grueling shifts, and the feeling that advancement is nearly impossible unless you’re in a manager’s good graces. One former employee described it bluntly: “The most common way to quit Buc-ee’s is by getting fired.”
Custodial staff in particular have described being watched closely. One Indeed reviewer who worked maintenance said that out of seven supervisors during their time there, the majority were either harsh or negligent, and that the pace and pressure created constant anxiety.
Customers react and push back
Commenters under Headrick’s TikTok largely sided with him. One alleged former employee described an 8-hour shift with no real break, a 20-minute lunch eaten in a warehouse surrounded by forklifts, and being unable to leave the building until clocking out. “It’s like going to work in a prison,” they wrote.
Others called on customers to vote with their wallets. “The way to send a message is to stop shopping there,” one commenter wrote, while another added, “Even if they pay more than a lot of other places, it’s not worth losing your self respect.”
That kind of unexpected moment caught on camera has become a reliable way for everyday customers to hold companies publicly accountable, even when those companies have massive followings and loyal fanbases. Sometimes it’s not the product that turns people away, it’s what they see when no one thinks anyone is watching.
BroBible said it reached out to Buc-ee’s for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
