Liquor Store Feasibility Study in Washington

A state where the class is scarce

Washington stands out for what is missing. The location quotient for liquor stores is 0.16x, a small fraction of parity, which tells us the class carries far less weight in Washington's SBA activity than it does nationwide. We cannot say from this data why, and a borrower should not assume the gap is an opening. Across FY2017 to FY2026 the file holds only 29 loans, totalling $11.6 million, placing the state 29 of 53, and liquor stores rank 22 of 39 on the Washington class table.

Loan sizes, programs and counties

The median of $235,400 works out to roughly half the typical liquor store loan elsewhere at 0.52x, and the central spread runs $50,000 to $537,000. SBA 7(a) made 27 of the loans and SBA 504 made 2. Franchise share is 0.00%, which is natural for a retail format of independent owners. King County leads with 12 loans, Pierce and Snohomish follow with 5 each, and Benton, Cowlitz, Douglas, Grant, Spokane, Thurston and Whatcom have a single loan each. The Puget Sound counties therefore dominate the record. Approvals peaked at 7 in FY2017, were absent in FY2019 and reached 6 in FY2025.

Outcomes

Neither the cancelled share of approvals nor the charged-off share of funded loans is published here, since the cohorts are too small to carry a rate. A withheld rate is not a zero, and where rates appear elsewhere they are floors that loans still open can raise. No lender is listed for this cell, so we say nothing about who funds liquor retail in the state.

What a Washington liquor store study has to test

Because the class is scarce in this record, a lender will have few Washington comparisons and will lean on the study. The first test is the licence: the location must be eligible, and the business model must rest on the licence terms in force rather than on assumptions from another state. Next comes sales, built from the trade area's population and its habits, the presence of nearby grocery stores and warehouse retailers that sell spirits, and competition from other licensed outlets. Margin and inventory turn need to be modelled, with the working capital cost of stocking a shelf. Because the typical loan is near $235,400, the plan should say what makes it larger if it is, perhaps real estate or a lease buyout. Coverage of the debt payments has to hold on conservative sales, and an appraiser will treat the licence as part of the going concern and not as real property.