When does a buyer see the grocery CIM?
After an NDA and a serious enough look to earn the book. The blind teaser is the filter. Department sales, the lease, and the recast do not go to a stranger who liked the one-pager.
CIM — Confidential information memorandum: the offering book released after NDA. A grocery CIM should show departmental sales, recast SDE, a lease abstract, and a license list — not a teaser multiple copied from another retail book.
Read how to read a CIM with the source files open. Grocery Store Business Broker — HedgeStone Business Advisors, led by Jason Taken — treats the book as a map to the room, the lease, and the recast. Book a confidential intro with the CIM and the P&Ls behind it. Email jason.taken@hedgestone.com if you want that reading hour. What is a grocery store CIM? is the short definition.
What belongs in the grocery book
Open with the format, the trade area in plain language, and whether the building is in the deal. Then put department sales that cover at least three years, a recast that shows owner pay and true one-time items, and add-backs that a buyer can audit. Put a lease abstract: term, options, assignment, CAM, exclusive use, and co-tenancy. Put a license calendar: SNAP application, alcohol class or control-state product, food, WIC, tobacco. Put warehouse and banner status. Put how inventory at cost will be counted.
What documents do I need to sell? is the folder. The CIM is the narrative that points at that folder. A photo gallery and a headline price are a brochure. Do I need an NDA before showing financials? is yes. The blind teaser stays anonymous. The book does not go out without a signature.
Numbers that have to tie to filings
If the CIM’s sales do not tie to sales-tax filings or scan data, stop and ask why. Card and EBT deposits should match the tender mix on the same weeks. A gap needs a sentence, not a shrug. Verifying sales with scan data is the method. Owner-company rent below market belongs on the recast as an insert of market rent, not as a buried footnote.
BizBuySell’s 2025 grocery and supermarket sold sample shows an average earnings multiple of 3.38, a five-year average of 2.66, and an interquartile range of 1.60 to 3.15. Those multiples attach to recast earnings on sold listings. They are channel context. They are not this store’s ask. A CIM that pastes 3.38× onto an unrecast tax-return profit is selling a listing-site average, not a file. The 2025 average revenue multiple of 0.43 is a sanity check, not a substitute for SDE.
What a brochure CIM leaves out
A CIM that skips the lease abstract is missing the occupancy file. So is a book that treats beer, wine, and spirits as one transferable trophy, or that writes SNAP as already in the buyer’s pocket. USDA FNS still requires a new owner application; the book should say the buyer applies. Hide a warehouse over-advance or a banner consent gap and the book is selling a store that may not open on the buyer’s credit. How to sell a grocery store confidentially is the process around the paper.
Keep the CIM inside the NDA circle so a sales rep is not reading department dollars before the buyer is. If you have a draft book and the source files, book the CIM conversation. Bring the recast, the lease, and the license list. The hour is for what the book left out, not for the cover.
An illustrative recast on What a grocery CIM has to show
Price language for What a grocery CIM has to show is (recast SDE x a defendable multiple) + inventory at cost, plus or minus lease and license risk. The table is one consistent example for this URL.
| Input or output | Illustrative figure |
|---|---|
| Weekly sales (illustrative) | $124,000 |
| Annual sales | $6,448,000 |
| Recast SDE | $373,984 (5.8% of sales) |
| Inventory at cost | $358,222 (~18 turns) |
| Occupancy check | $212,784 / year (3.3% of sales) |
| Low going-concern | $1,106,190 at 2.00x SDE + inventory |
| High going-concern | $1,424,076 at 2.85x SDE + inventory |
| Sketch DSCR on a note | 1.50 |
Inventory is cash at close, not a multiple. Confusing the two is how sellers over-ask and buyers under-cash the wire.
Book the intro call with your side of the table ready: seller files or buyer capital. The calendar is the only next step.