Liquor Store Feasibility Study in the Cleveland, OH Metro Area

A small-ticket, all-7(a) liquor store record in Cleveland

Cleveland, OH holds 29 liquor store loans for FY2017 to FY2026, totalling $6.2 million, and all 29 are SBA 7(a). Cleveland's $150,000 median comes to 0.33x the national figure, while loans in the central half lie between $50,000 and $360,000. Liquor stores are 17th of 39 classes locally; across areas Cleveland is 33 of 426; and a location quotient of 0.35x says liquor stores weigh much less here than in the nation's SBA lending. The 0.35x location quotient and the 0.33x median ratio both sit well below the national level, so liquor stores take a small share of lending here, in smaller loans than the class nationwide.

Independent stores and one large holder

Franchise affiliation is 0.00%. As SBA reports current holders, The Huntington National Bank has 14 loans worth $1.1 million, an entry that describes holdings and not lending practice. Cuyahoga County has 16 of the loans and Lake County has 6.

Years, zeros and rates

FY2017 prints 6 loans and $713,000, and FY2018 prints 9 loans and $1.7 million. FY2020, FY2025 and FY2026 are zero years: each prints 0 loans and $0, and FY2026 is a complete fiscal year. FY2019, FY2021 and FY2022 through FY2024 are blank because the loans behind them are too few, which does not make them zero. Cleveland has fewer loans from FY2017 to FY2021 than the 30 that Loan Analytics' own rule demands, which is why no outcome rate prints.

What a Cleveland liquor store study has to test

Package stores earn on margin and turns, so a study should test the gross margin of the planned assortment, the inventory the loan must carry, sales per square foot against the catchment, and the license position of the premises. At a $150,000 median the loan is mostly stock, fixtures and a lease deposit; the study should split these. Debt service should be shown with a slow opening year and the owner's labor priced in. Because all 29 loans are 7(a), the study should set the loan term against how quickly inventory turns and cash builds. It should also compare the proposed store with the stores already in Cuyahoga and Lake counties, the two counties named. The metro is formed from project counties.