Buc-ee’s Billboard Near Beaver’s Mini Mart Vandalized As Corporation Gaslights Mayor

from the buc-off dept

This Buc-ee’s vs. the Beaver’s Mini-Mart is just not going to go away. While Buc-ee’s has made quite the name for itself as a trademark bully over the past several years, it may have finally run into a combination that is more than the corporation can handle. Between John Oliver’s continued coverage of this lawsuit, in which he is clearly on the side of the mini-mart and in which he is attempting to goad Buc-ee’s into a lawsuit, combined with the community of Beavercreek which isn’t having this shit, the PR is starting to look really bad here.

As a result, the locals in Beavercreek are getting ornery. You can see blurry proof of that in a picture of what vandals apparently did to a Buc-ee’s billboard nearby.

A Buc-ee’s highway advertisement along state Route 4 in Riverside, Ohio, was vandalized amid a controversial lawsuit between the popular chain and a small mini-mart in Beavercreek, Ohio.

My friends in the media can do their half-assed blurring all they want, but someone turned “Buc-ee’s” into “Fuc-ee’s” and then added some otherwise indecipherable graffiti. Now, I’m not here to encourage anyone to participate in vandalism, or break any other law for that matter. But actions like this certainly do give you a sense of just how pissed off the locals are at Buc-ee’s bullying one of its local businesses. This has become a national story and a local one, meaning that the breadth of anger at the company is both intimate and wide-spread.

And I have very little time for the obvious gaslighting that Buc-ee’s is attempting to pull off as a result. Huber Heights is the Ohio town in which Buc-ee’s opened up its first Ohio location and CEO Arch Aplin apparently attempted to enlist the town’s mayor to try to placate the locals.

In a public Facebook post published Aug. 7, Huber Heights Mayor Jeff Gore wrote that there were “two sides to every story” and that he had been in contact with Buc-ee’s CEO Arch Aplin.

Gore wrote that Vik Boparai had filed for the trade name “Beavers Mini Mart” and that the name was in conflict with a federal trademark owned by Buc-ee’s. He said Aplin informed him that Boparai had filed for a federal trademark for “Beavermart,” which “would have given him access to set up Beavermarts all across the country.” Gore noted that the filing was made a “few months after” Buc-ee’s officials announced a location in the Dayton area.

“Mr. Aplin told me directly that Buc-ee’s had no issues with Beavermart using the Beaver logo in Beavercreek. He understood and said that makes sense. What Buc-ee’s did not want was a series of Beavermarts popping up across the state or regionally or eventually nationally that violated their trademark,” the post reads in part.

Two things on this. First, whether two trademarks are in conflict is not for any mayor, nor even one of the trademark holders to determine on their own. That is for the USPTO and the court system to decide, should it get that far. Gore’s commentary here on that is pointless and meaningless.

As for Aplin’s comments about having no issues with the current location’s name or signage, his own fucking lawsuit says otherwise. I’ve embedded the suit below so you can read it for yourself. The complaint specifically calls out the current signage, the cartoon beaver mascot, the current color scheme of its branding, and even the expression of said beaver mascot and states that this is all trademark infringement in its current form. In fact, it asks for relief specifically in the form of an injunction against the mini-mart for continued use of that branding as it currently exists and then asks for a written report from the mini-mart confirming under oath that it has complied.

This is gaslighting. Aplin is lying about what his own lawsuit is demanding. And if there is any one rule in crisis PR above all else, it’s simply: don’t lie. Because that makes the PR even worse as a result, which is exactly what has now happened.

Filed Under: arch aplin, beavers, jeff gore, ohio, trademark, trademark bullies

Companies: beaver’s mini mart, buc-ee’s