Coffee Shop Feasibility Study in the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metro Area

Coffee and snack bars in Rhode Island and Massachusetts counties

The Providence-Warwick, RI-MA area carries 32 coffee shop and snack bar loans in SBA's files, FY2017 to FY2026, with $7.7 million in gross dollars. The class sits 13 of 39 locally, and a ranking of areas by these loans has Providence-Warwick at 47 of 612. The location quotient of 0.59x puts coffee shops well under their national weight. Typical size is $253,700, which works out to 1.06x the national figure; half of all loans fall between $57,500 and $416,175. No metric is marked as distinctive here.

Brands and counties

Franchise affiliation is 43.8% of loans. Bristol County, MA holds 17 of the loans and Providence County, RI holds 8, so the loans are spread across two states' counties. No lender holds five loans in either program, so none is named, and the program split is withheld since one program has too few loans to show.

One year to read

Of the 32 loans, FY2022 alone prints, at 7 loans and $1.7 million. A blank for any other year means only that too few loans stand behind it. The cohort of loans disbursed in FY2017 to FY2021 across Bristol and Providence counties is under 30, the floor Loan Analytics applies, so both outcome rates are absent.

Testing a Rhode Island or Massachusetts coffee shop

The spread between $57,500 and $416,175 in the middle half shows both tiny kiosk-scale projects and fully built shops, so a study begins by placing the project in that range. It has to test transactions per hour at the proposed address across the morning, midday and afternoon, the average check, labor against the hours open, and the occupancy cost per square foot. If the shop is franchised, as 43.8% of loans are, fees and required equipment enter the coverage test. Because Bristol County, MA and Providence County, RI both appear, the study should say which jurisdiction's permits and licensing apply. A Rhode Island or Massachusetts address counts toward this metro only if its county is in the July 2023 delineation. Seasonal swings and the share of sales that come from morning visits should each be shown as a separate line in the forecast, so that a weak quarter does not surprise the lender.