Liquor Store Feasibility Study in South Carolina

Resort traffic and a low-franchise retail class

South Carolina liquor store lending is shaped by the coast as much as by the cities. SBA approved 58 approvals for liquor stores from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $41.0 million, and Horry County leads with 11 loans, ahead of Greenville with 9 and Charleston with 6. The location quotient is 0.83x, so the class takes a thinner slice of South Carolina approvals than the national mix would predict, and it holds 12 of 39 among the state's classes while South Carolina is 22 of 53 on volume. South Carolina liquor stores show no metric that sets them apart from either the whole state or the whole class.

Ticket size, programs and banks

The median loan is $393,500, a figure at 0.87x of the class's national median; half of loans fall between $150,000 to $906,750. That wide band mixes inventory-heavy purchases with real estate. Even so, the 7(a) programme supplied 56 loans against 2 for 504, so ownership of the building is usually handled outside SBA financing or by leasing. Franchising is absent from South Carolina liquor stores, at 0.00%. Citizens Bank and TD Bank, National Association each hold 6 loans, though Citizens' $2.8 million dwarfs TD's $210,000, and Truist Bank holds 5 loans worth $5.7 million. Dollars per loan therefore differ sharply by lender, a reminder that headline counts conceal very different deal sizes.

Cancellation floor, missing losses and uneven years

The cancellation floor for approvals made in FY2017 through FY2024 is 15.2%, and the ceiling is identical, so a real portion of approved loans never went ahead. The charge-off rate is not published for this cell because the disbursed cohort is below the 30-loan threshold. We do not quote a number and do not suggest losses are absent. Volume swings widely: 12 loans in FY2023, 10 in FY2025 and just 2 in FY2026, a pattern typical of a small base.

Questions the study must answer

A liquor store study in South Carolina must start with licensing, since a permit and zoning constraints can decide the site before demand is measured. Beyond that, it should test the trade area: resident households, tourist seasons on the coast, and competition from groceries and convenience outlets that also sell alcohol. Inventory financing, the lease, and shrinkage belong in the budget next to a ticket near $393,500. Debt service coverage should be shown for an off-season case, and the appraisal, which will rest on trailing sales and the licence, needs a forecast that reconciles with a documented sales history.