Grocery Store Feasibility Study in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area

Philadelphia grocers: sixth nationally, small tickets

Grocery store loans in the Philadelphia area number 107 for FY2017 to FY2026 and total $57.9 million. The area is sixth of 412 for the class, while grocery stores are tenth of 39 within the area. The location quotient is 1.33x, a heavier local weight than the national share. Loan size is the cell's differentiator: the median of $240,000 is only 0.68x the nationwide class midpoint, with quartile edges at $75,000 and $746,850. Neighbourhood grocers, not supermarkets, drive this record, and a borrower should expect the lower end of the range to be common.

What is withheld

Several values do not appear for this cell: the tallies of 7(a) and 504 loans, the franchise share, the ceiling on cancelled loans and the rate of write-offs. Each is withheld since it rests on too few loans, or because publishing it would let a small figure be derived, and none of them is zero. That limits what this page can say about program choice and about how disbursed loans have performed.

Lenders and places

SBA lists four 7(a) holders: TD Bank, National Association with 20 loans worth $2.0 million, Woori America Bank with 13 worth $9.2 million, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB with 10 worth $5.8 million and PromiseOne Bank with 7 worth $4.7 million. TD's small dollars per loan imply a small average loan. These are records of who holds loans, not statements of policy. Philadelphia County has 50 loans, Montgomery 12, Camden 11, Delaware County, PA 10, Bucks 8 and New Castle, DE 5.

Years, floors and the study

Yearly counts range from 6 loans in FY2021, which carried $9.9 million, to 19 loans in FY2024 with $7.0 million. Cancellation after approval is 9.8% or more for FY2017 to FY2024 approvals, a floor. The area spans four states, matched by project county name against the 2023 metro map. A grocery study here has to test the walkable catchment and household incomes, the store's format and category mix, supplier terms, lease and fit-out cost for refrigeration, debt service coverage at small tickets, and an appraisal that separates inventory and equipment from the building.