Grocery Store Feasibility Study in Georgia

Georgia grocers borrow far above the class median

Georgia grocery loans are large for the class, and the Georgia median is what clears our two-sided test, against the overall Georgia SBA book and against grocery lending nationally. The Georgia median of $733,500 is 2.08x the national grocery median. Between the quartiles, Georgia loans ran from $358,750 to $1.3 million, and the 118 approvals from FY2017 to FY2026 total $137.0 million. Loans of this size usually mean the purchase of a store with its building, a new build, or a substantial equipment and refrigeration package, not inventory lines.

Georgia ranks 12 of 55 for grocery lending, grocery is 16 of 39 among Georgia classes, and the 0.97x location quotient puts it close to its national weight. Franchise grocers are a small minority, at 5.9%. SBA 7(a) carries 100 approvals and SBA 504 18.

The lender list is short and concentrated. Metro City Bank holds 15 Georgia grocery loans worth $24.9 million, Loyal Trust Bank 9 worth $10.7 million and HomeTrust Bank 8 worth $5.2 million. Lending peaked in FY2021 with 19 approvals worth $29.3 million and reached 17 worth $21.6 million in FY2025, after only 2 in FY2019.

The Georgia floors, and what they mean

Cancellation is the outcome a Georgia borrower should plan for. Of Georgia's FY2017 to FY2024 grocery approvals, 14.0% or more were cancelled, and 15.1% if undisbursed loans are counted. A store purchase that falls through after approval usually stalls on the seller's records, the equity injection or an appraisal below the contract. Credit has held up better: of 44 Georgia grocery loans funded from FY2017 to FY2021, 2.3% are charged off, and Georgia's five-year rate matches it at 2.3%, so Georgia's recorded losses came early. Both Georgia rates are floors.

What a Georgia grocery feasibility study must test

Fulton County holds 20 approvals, and DeKalb and Gwinnett 19 each, with Forsyth at 6, so Georgia grocery lending clusters in those three counties. A feasibility study must show the household spending the trade area supplies, the competing supermarkets and ethnic or specialty grocers, and the sales per square foot the store can sustain. Cost must be bid, including refrigeration and any building work. With a median at 2.08x the class, the payment test must hold on thin grocery margins at a large loan, so the study should stress gross margin and labor. Where a Georgia grocer is also buying its building, the appraiser should value that retail property apart from the store's business. The figures cover SBA loans only.