Liquor Store Feasibility Study in Kansas

A class that Kansas leans on

Package liquor is a modest-ticket business, and Kansas leans on it more than most states do. Kansas liquor stores drew 81 SBA approvals between FY2017 and FY2026, totalling $27.5 million. A location quotient of 1.67x means liquor stores hold a clearly bigger slice of the state's SBA activity than the national mix would predict; the class is 19 of 53 on the state table and 6 of 39 within Kansas. Against that concentration, loans are small: the median of $253,000 is 0.56x the national median for liquor stores, and the central half of approvals spans $100,000 to $480,000. No metric stands out as distinctive here, so the case rests on concentration and ticket size rather than on loss rates.

Who lends and where

SBA 7(a) dominates, with 74 loans against 7 under SBA 504, which fits a business whose main asset is inventory and a license rather than a building. No loan carries a franchise flag, since the share is 0.00%. The lender list is wide and flat. U.S. Bank, National Association has 7 loans worth $1.4 million, OakStar Bank has 6 worth $3.5 million, UMB Bank, National Association has 6 worth $2.2 million and Landmark National Bank has 5 worth $1.0 million. OakStar's larger dollar figure suggests it handles the bigger deals, including real estate. Johnson County leads with 33 loans, followed by Douglas with 11 and Shawnee and Wyandotte with 5 each.

Volume has cooled

Annual approvals were 12 in FY2017 and 11 in FY2019 and again in FY2023, but sank to 4 in FY2025 and 5 in FY2026, with dollars falling to $1.3 million and $1.9 million. A borrower should not read that as a verdict on credit; it may reflect shifts in lender appetite. A lender, though, should note that the pipeline is thinner than the historical total implies.

Cancellations and charge-offs

Withdrawals before funding claimed at least 12.5% of Kansas liquor approvals made between FY2017 and FY2024, and treating unfunded loans as dropped does not change that. Of the 40 liquor loans that reached disbursement in FY2017 through FY2021, 2.5% are written off to date, yet 0.00% were lost inside five years. Open loans can still move both numbers upward.

What the study has to prove

Anyone planning a Kansas liquor store has to size demand from the drive-time customer base of the trade area and the competing licensed outlets around it, since license rules limit who can enter. Cost should be checked against a ticket that often sits near the $253,000 median, so a project asking for much more needs a clear reason, such as owned real estate. Coverage of debt service should be run on gross margin after the owner's own compensation, with inventory financing separated from the term loan. The appraisal, where real estate is part of the deal, will value the property for retail use and for income that depends on the license.