SBA 7(a) Liquor Store Feasibility Study in Oklahoma

No franchises, modest checks

Oklahoma liquor stores borrow independently: the franchise share is 0.00%. Between FY2017 and FY2026 the program approved 50 such loans, adding up to $21.7 million, with a median of $255,000, only 0.58x of what liquor retail borrows nationally, and half of loans between $150,250 and $536,250. Oklahoma ranks 22 among states by count, and liquor stores stand 13 of 39 among Oklahoma asset types. What the numbers describe is a business of owner-operated shops, each financed on its own, with no brand system behind the borrower. Neither the median nor the spread suggests a chain; each loan is a separate local decision by a lender who knows the store's competitors and its license history.

Two banks and two counties

Counts tie between First Pryority Bank and BancFirst, at 7 each, though dollars differ at $3.4 million and $2.6 million, a tie that leaves neither with a clear lead. Tulsa County has 19 loans and Oklahoma has 10, together most of the file, with Garfield and Payne at 3 each. Annual approvals ran between 3 and 8, with the largest dollar total in FY2026 at $4.6 million.

Outcomes

Oklahoma shows 7.3% of its early-vintage liquor approvals cancelled, and undisbursed loans do not alter that. Funded loans in the early cohort are too few for a charge-off rate, which stays withheld and is not a zero. For a lender, that leaves cancellation as the only outcome signal in the cell, and a modest one: it speaks to closings, not to repayment years later.

What the study should test

The state regulates how and where spirits and wine may be sold, so a study must verify that the license can be obtained or transferred and that the site meets the distance rules. Demand rests on neighborhood competition and on the product mix, since margins differ between spirits, wine and convenience items. Inventory is a large part of the capital need, and the loan may fund it with the fit-out or the purchase of an existing store. The study should rebuild earnings of an acquired store from tax returns, test the impact of a new competitor, and show debt coverage with inventory shrinkage. Where the building is bought too, an appraiser will split bricks from license value, and the plan should do so first.