Can I assume an independent grocery is non-union?
No. Some independents are organized. Read the handbook, ask the seller in writing, and look for dues, stewards, and a CBA in the data room. Guessing non-union is how files blow up in diligence.
UFCW — United Food and Commercial Workers, the primary grocery union in many chain stores and some independents. A collective bargaining agreement can set wages, benefits, scheduling, and whether a new owner must assume the contract or bargain as a successor. None of those dollar scales are invented here. The contract in the file is the scale.
Ask the union question before you recast labor. Grocery Store Business Broker — HedgeStone Business Advisors, led by Jason Taken — treats a CBA as a close document, not as color in the CIM. Book a confidential intro when the data room has the agreement, or when you still do not know whether one exists.
Read the CBA before you recast labor
SDE assumes cash after a labor cost a buyer can keep. A UFCW scale the buyer must pay is that cost. Do not add back the gap between the contract and a hoped-for non-union wage. That gap is the business if the successor clause holds. Recasting a grocery P&L is the method. This page is the labor input that method cannot invent.
Pension and health contributions sit in the same stack. A withdrawal-liability conversation belongs to counsel and the fund, not to a glossary. Flag the multi-employer plan if the CBA names one, and do not guess a dollar.
Handling employees, union contracts, and WARN is the longer calendar. What happens to employees when you sell is the people question.
Successor language is the deal point
The clause that matters is the one that says who is bound when the store changes hands. Some CBAs reach an asset buyer who keeps the crew. Some require notice and bargaining. The APA sentence that the buyer takes no liabilities does not erase that clause. Successor liability in the tax sense is a different doctrine. Union successorship is labor fact plus contract text.
A stock sale is even plainer: the employer entity did not change its name on the NLRB file just because the shares moved. Assume the CBA until counsel says otherwise.
Do not publish a local wage table on this site. Locals differ. The file’s appendix is the only table that prices this store.
Independents can still be union shops
Format is not a union test. A neighborhood independent can have a steward and a contract. A small chain can be open. Look for dues deductions, a posted CBA, and a seller who changes the subject. Write the question in diligence so the answer is on paper.
WARN is a separate federal headcount test. A union shop under 100 employees can still have a CBA and no federal WARN filing. Do not mix the two calendars. Should I tell employees I am selling is the confidentiality timing question. A steward who hears it from a vendor will set the story on the floor.
If the file might be organized, bring the CBA or the honest “I have never asked.” Ask who the steward is and whether a grievance is open. Those two facts change the first week more than a rumor about “the union being reasonable.” Book the labor conversation. The hour is for assumption and the recast, not for a vibe that independents are always at-will.
How a buyer would price UFCW contracts on a grocery sale
Price language for UFCW contracts on a grocery sale 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) | $228,000 |
| Annual sales | $11,856,000 |
| Recast SDE | $687,648 (5.8% of sales) |
| Inventory at cost | $741,000 (~16 turns) |
| Occupancy check | $438,672 / year (3.7% of sales) |
| Low going-concern | $2,013,149 at 1.85x SDE + inventory |
| High going-concern | $2,907,091 at 3.15x SDE + inventory |
| Sketch DSCR on a note | 1.55 |
Rent at 3.7% of sales is the occupancy check. If the real lease is higher, the SDE in this table is too generous until you recast to market rent.
Book the intro call with your side of the table ready: seller files or buyer capital. The calendar is the only next step.