Drive 25 miles south from the gigantic, garish hotel-casinos of the Las Vegas Strip to the tiny settlement of Jean, and you will find a gas station that mirrors the flamboyant spirit of Sin City. Terrible’s Road House on Interstate 15 is a popular fuel and food stop for those making the long trek across the Mojave Desert to the Californian coast. It has also become a tourist attraction – and it is easy to see why, as we discovered when we paid a visit.
The first thing you notice about the 24-hour Chevron site, which opened in 2018, is its sheer size. There are no fewer than 96 pumps on its football pitch-sized forecourt. Step inside and – after being greeted by the cashier with a friendly “Welcome to Terrible’s” – you enter a 50,000sq ft emporium of fast food, soft drinks, alcohol, souvenirs, and motoring essentials.
You can happily while away an hour browsing or sampling the many different sections of the shop – from a Las Vegas gift store to a White Castle burger concession (with drive-thru), a beer cave to a Red Bull energy lounge, a pizza counter to a 70-tap self-serve Coca-Cola-branded soda station. There was a model plane hanging from the roof and a vintage Ford Sunliner rally car and Nascar racing truck on the floor, reflecting the autosport interests of the Herbst family owners. And there is an instore casino.
The eccentricity level goes up a notch when you meet an eight-foot Bigfoot promoting a Jack Link’s Jerky display, and a model of the Roswell alien at the Alien Outpost, which offers gifts themed around Nevada’s supposed Area 51 secret UFO research facility (the extra-terrestrial itself is slightly incongruous: Roswell, New Mexico, where the Earth visitor was meant to have crashed, is 800 miles away).
Terrible’s Road House is owned by Terrible Herbst, which operates gas stations across the US Southwest, including a more modest sister forecourt on the Las Vegas-bound side of 1-15. Its name originates from rivals supposedly describing its expansive pre-war founder Edward Herbst as “Terrible Herbst” because of his habit of undercutting their prices. The company even owned a hotel and casino next door, which closed for good during Covid, but is still visible from the road.
Despite its size, when we dropped in during an early morning in late October the forecourt was busy, with around half the pumps being used at any time. Although there was pay-at-pump technology, most of the car and truck drivers were frequenting the shop. The outside picnic tables were also well used.
While some UK operators have tried the novelty theme approach – think of Inner Space Station in York with its Daleks and other sci-fi models or Glasgow’s RaceTrack Pitstop chain with its American candy and ice cream counter – Terrible’s Road House has the advantage of scale. US freeways do not have government-approved motorway service areas (MSAs) like the UK or, say, France, and arid land that far out of Las Vegas is relatively cheap.
That means the retail and promotional displays in the cavernous outlet are well spaced – in islands or sections along the walls rather than in long aisles. While many UK forecourts offer an array of branded fast-food options, for instance, few can do it to the scale of Terrible’s Road House – its beer cave alone is the size of a modest high street off-licence. And how many UK service stations – even the largest MSA – would have room to display a car or two inside?
Terrible’s Road House does not do everything. With water supplies at a premium in the desert, there is no car wash, for instance, and, despite electric cars making up 6.8% of new car sales in the US, staff told us electric chargers had been tried a few years back but cost more to run than they made.
However, just for its sheer size, variety, and fun approach to retailing, Terrible’s is worth a detour for any forecourt operator visiting Las Vegas and keen to pick up ideas, whether that be the counter display of loose buffalo and beef flavoured jerky, or the latest in American confectionery, such as Skittles candyfloss or Cookie Dough Milky Way chocolate bars. Just be careful ordering an Uber or other ride-share service. Drivers are happy to take you from the city; less keen to make the journey to Jean to pick you up.
