Do you represent both sides?
Jason works sellers and qualified buyers. Conflicts are disclosed on the file.
A grocery store business broker packages a confidential file, finds qualified operators, and walks licenses and inventory to a close. This is not a public classifieds board and not a commercial real-estate listing with a grocery afterthought.
Jason Taken does that work through HedgeStone Business Advisors. Jason Taken and HedgeStone are not licensed business brokers in every state. If you sell the building, you need a real-estate licensee in that state. Check the current rule for the store itself, apart from the building.
See how brokers get paid, how it works, and About.
| Topic | Grocery reading | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Earnings | Recast SDE or EBITDA | SDE |
| Stockroom | Inventory at cost | inventory |
| EBT | New owner application | SNAP |
| Debt | DSCR on the recast | DSCR |
Illustrative, not a quote. For a grocery broker services, recast SDE of $311,274 at 1.69×–3.25× plus $228,608 inventory at cost frames a going-concern band of about $754,661 to $1,240,249. The 2.30× midpoint lands near $944,538. Lease remaining term and license lag can move the check more than the multiple.
Checklist: grocery broker services
- Recast the P&L into SDE
- Separate inventory at cost
- Abstract the lease
- List SNAP, alcohol, food, WIC, tobacco
- Read the wholesaler agreement
- Write license conditions into the LOI
Illustrative, not a quote. Keep the conversation on grocery broker services, scan data, and license clocks — not on a neighbor’s rumor multiple.
FMI channel facts describe a supermarket sample. Your 8,000 square foot box is not that sample.
FIFO versus a messy room is how you start a fight at 2 a.m.
APA schedules are where the real store lives: contracts, equipment, excluded assets. See also SDE, inventory at cost, shrink, SNAP authorization.
EBT deposits should reconcile to the SNAP story. A gap is either mix, downtime, or fiction.
Lease remaining term under 24 months without options is a price cut, not a footnote.
Lottery contracts are often personal. Confirm before you count commission as durable.
Transition hours are a close condition. Write them. See also lease diligence, liquor transfer, recasting a P&L.
HFFI and state healthy-food programs change; do not quote a stale dollar cap.
Inventory night needs rules: what is unsellable, who pays the crew, how disputes resolve.
The LOI should say how inventory is counted and how licenses are conditioned.
Scan data is the adult conversation. A weekly-sales spreadsheet without department mix is a rumor.
Banner fees and program charges belong in the recast as continuing costs if the buyer will keep the fascia.
Read DSCR, seller note, tax clearance, bulk sales. Cross-check how a sale works and the FAQ. Format pages live under sell an independent supermarket and buy an independent supermarket. Tools: valuation calculator, cash-to-close, rent checker.
Post-close, the first 90 days are vendor trust, shrink, and not changing the mix for sport.
Sales-tax filings are a sales corroboration tool, especially where food is taxed or partially taxed.
Assignment, exclusive use, and co-tenancy are the three clauses that surprise civilians.
Tobacco licenses sit with tax and health agencies, not with the APA automatically. See also lease diligence, liquor transfer, recasting a P&L.
Non-competes have to be enforceable in the state and narrow enough to keep.
Lottery contracts are often personal. Confirm before you count commission as durable. See also SDE, inventory at cost, shrink, SNAP authorization.
Transition hours are a close condition. Write them.
The LOI should say how inventory is counted and how licenses are conditioned. See also lease diligence, liquor transfer, recasting a P&L.
WIC is a vendor file, not a sticker on the door.
WIC is a vendor file, not a sticker on the door. See also SDE, inventory at cost, shrink, SNAP authorization.
Add-backs that repeat every year are the business. Stop calling them one-time.
Food-desert rhetoric does not replace a P&L.
Working capital is the cash to buy the next load, not a vibe.
Attorneys and CPAs who have never closed a grocery file will rediscover SNAP in week six. See also lease diligence, liquor transfer, recasting a P&L.
Recast before you argue a multiple. Owner pay, one-time legal, and personal autos can move SDE; recurring shrink cannot.
Wholesaler over-advances are debt. They are not an add-back.
SNAP authorization does not transfer. Budget downtime in cash and in the story you tell the landlord.
Unreported cash does not survive SBA. It also does not survive a serious conventional buyer. See also lease diligence, liquor transfer, recasting a P&L.
Ethnic mix without language on the floor is a shrink plan.
Seller notes often sit on standby behind SBA. Read the standby, not the folklore.
A CIM that omits the lease abstract is a brochure. See also SDE, inventory at cost, shrink, SNAP authorization.
Selling to family or a manager still needs a real price and a real note. Soft language creates hard lawsuits.
DSD vendors will keep delivering after a sloppy close only if someone is paying them.
Owned real estate is a second asset. Recast the store on market rent, then cap the building.
Tax clearance belongs in escrow language, not in a handshake. See also lease diligence, liquor transfer, recasting a P&L.
A rural box can be a good living and a terrible loan. Those are different questions.
DSCR is annual cash flow over annual debt service. Hope is not a ratio.
Comparing offers means cash at close, note terms, inventory treatment, and license risk — not the headline price. See also turns, DSD, wholesaler, asset sale.
Multi-store sales need a shared recast and a shared license calendar, or they unravel store by store.
Turns are not one number. Center store and wine do not share a clock.
A below-market related-party rent juiced the earnings and will reverse on day one.
Bulk-sale or successor-liability practice can still exist after UCC Article 6 died. See also SDE, inventory at cost, shrink, SNAP authorization.
WARN and union contracts are calendar items on larger headcount files.
Revenue multiples hide rent and labor. Use them to sanity-check, then return to SDE.
Earn-outs on grocery are hard because the buyer controls mix after Monday.
Distressed stores still have inventory and a lease. Price those, not a turnaround novel. See also lease diligence, liquor transfer, recasting a P&L.
Department gross margin hides in a storewide blend. Meat and produce can sink a “healthy” number.
CAM true-ups can erase a year of “extra” SDE.
Alcohol is a class, a quota, or a control store — never “the liquor license” as one magical asset. See also turns, DSD, wholesaler, asset sale.
Employees learn from vendors and shoppers. Confidentiality is a process, not a speech.
BizBuySell multiples are a listing-site sold sample, not chain M&A.
Holdbacks exist because grocery has shrink and successor tax risk.
Post-close, the first 90 days are vendor trust, shrink, and not changing the mix for sport. See also SDE, inventory at cost, shrink, SNAP authorization.
An illustrative recast on What a grocery store business broker does
These figures are a teaching walk-through for What a grocery store business broker does, not a quote and not a sold comp. Order of operations: weekly sales, recast SDE, inventory at cost, then a multiple band.
| Input or output | Illustrative figure |
|---|---|
| Weekly sales (illustrative) | $168,000 |
| Annual sales | $8,736,000 |
| Recast SDE | $270,816 (3.1% of sales) |
| Inventory at cost | $546,000 (~16 turns) |
| Occupancy check | $235,872 / year (2.7% of sales) |
| Low going-concern | $1,087,632 at 2.00x SDE + inventory |
| High going-concern | $1,399,070 at 3.15x SDE + inventory |
| Sketch DSCR on a note | 1.46 |
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.