Grocery Store Business Broker · HedgeStone Business Advisors · Jason Taken
Last updated 2026-09-04
Lead with DABS class and county option before you argue a multiple, then book a confidential intro. HedgeStone Business Advisors — Jason Taken, Grocery Store Business Broker — packages Utah independents around privilege-honest SDE, costed inventory, and DABS timing on dated clocks. Email jason.taken@hedgestone.com when class and scan are ready.
Census County Business Patterns 2023 counts 411 establishments under NAICS 445110 in Utah. Census Vintage 2024 puts the state at 3,503,613 people as of July 1, 2024. That is a compact, fast-growing grocery map — still not a homemade multiple. This pack does not publish a SNAP-retailer census; that field is null. USDA FNS: SNAP does not transfer. The incoming owner files a new retailer application.
The going concern is SDE a Wasatch lender will believe, inventory at cost, a landlord who will assign, and calendars at DABS, Utah DHHS and local health, the Tax Commission, and FNS. Smith’s (Kroger), Harmons, Associated Food Stores retailers (Macey’s / Dan’s / and related banners), and WinCo Foods set conventional weather. They are context, not listings. Your independent wins the trips they skip: Pacific-Islander and Latino mix in the valley, hours, a specialty case. The metro essay is Salt Lake City grocery. The sibling search essay is buy a grocery in Utah.
Utah is a control state on the NABCA directory. Beer is sold in grocery. Wine and spirits are sold through Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services stores. Spirits are typically not in grocery. State-store siting is a DABS decision. Grocery beer privileges transfer only with DABS and local approval; wine and spirits remain in the state system. Confirm current beer-alcohol-content rules for the address. Do not model a wine or spirits aisle you cannot operate. Control state, liquor diligence, and state alcohol regime belong in the LOI.
Utah does not operate a traditional state lottery. Do not list lottery as a deal item. Confirm before you write it into a CIM. Tobacco sits with the Utah State Tax Commission. WIC sits with Utah Department of Health and Human Services — WIC. Retail food sits with Utah DHHS and local health departments. Incoming operators file as a new retail food operation. WIC, lottery, tobacco is the checklist — and on this file the lottery line is a verify-before-listing item, not an asset.
Utah taxes food at a reduced combined state/local food rate. This pack commonly summarizes that rate near 3% in research notes and then refuses to hard-code a single statewide number in prose. Pull the Tax Commission combined food rate table for the store address. Prepared food is taxed at the full rate. State grocery sales tax is the clip.
On an asset sale, confirm Utah State Tax Commission tax clearance and successor liability. Repealed UCC Article 6 does not erase successor risk. Bulk sales belongs in counsel’s memo. If the building conveys, you need a real-estate licensee. BizBuySell’s licensing article includes Utah among states that commonly require a real estate license for business brokerage; lists conflict. Confirm with the state real estate commission. Jason Taken and HedgeStone are not listing a Utah brokerage license here. Book a confidential intro on the grocery recast.
DOL’s July 1, 2026 consolidated table lists Utah at the federal $7.25. Confirm Utah Labor Commission posters. Market grocery wages often sit above the floor. State minimum wage is the table.
Salt Lake Valley is the primary independent and Pacific-Islander / Latino corridor in this pack. Recast produce, meat, and specialty on that mix. Sell a Hispanic grocery is the format essay. West Valley and the west-side corridors are not a Smith’s circular.
Utah County / Provo–Orem is fast-growth suburban conventional. Occupancy and new rooftops belong in the recast as facts from the lease and the weekly, not as a trophy. Ogden / Davis is the north corridor independent file. St. George / Washington County is in-migration plus seasonal and year-round growth. Do not paste a Salt Lake live-produce story onto a St. George conventional box, and do not paste either onto a rural county seat.
Federal HFFI may apply; this pack records no dollar figure.
Quiet process matters because Associated Food Stores and UNFI reps talk along I-15. Put the NDA in front of scan data. Confidential sale is the worksheet.
A seller who prices from weekly sales alone will sit through a recast. Department margins, owner hours, and shrink decide whether a multiple inside the national IQR holds. Price after DABS-class honesty — not after a national listing-sample slogan. This page invents no Utah sold-comp mean.
Recasting a grocery P&L and three years of financials are the homework. Tie weekly sales to scan and EBT. Scan-data verification is how you survive a buyer who already shops Smith’s or Harmons.
Most independents lease. Some older boxes own the dirt. Confirm the file. Put assignment in the LOI. Occupancy is a ratio from the lease you have — this pack does not attach a public Salt Lake grocery rent-per-foot table. If the seller owns the box, recast the store on market rent and price real estate separately. Sell a grocery with real estate splits the assets.
SBA 7(a) can finance a change of ownership; the published maximum is $5 million. Lenders still want DABS beer, SNAP, and a lease. Seller financing can bridge privilege lag.
Inventory counts at cost, unsellable held back. Closing inventory keeps the fight off the floor. Associated Food Stores and UNFI show up as Utah supply names. Many independents live inside the AFS retailer family (Macey’s, Dan’s, and related banners). Confirm which house actually drops the store. Over-advances and personal guarantees travel. A close that ignores that book reopens on Monday. Wholesaler agreements stay off the sales floor.
Smith’s takes the Kroger conventional trip. Harmons takes a regional higher ring. WinCo takes the warehouse-price trip. AFS retailers take independent conventional. The independent specialty or ethnic box has to name the trips those banners still leave. Competition analysis is the method. Buying an ethnic market outside your community is required reading if the buyer does not already shop that aisle.
National supermarket channel averages are context only — not this store’s week.1% average net profit for food retailers, $668,377 average weekly sales per supermarket, $19.59 weekly sales per square foot — describe the broader channel, not this store.
Sales-tax returns are a sales-corroboration tool here, not just a clearance tool. Because Utah taxes food at a reduced combined rate that varies by locality, a buyer who learned grocery in a full-exemption state will mis-read the return. Pull the table for the address. Prepared food at the full rate is a POS coding file.
People are the asset. A produce lead who stays ninety days is worth more than a wide non-compete. Transition periods belong in the LOI.
Working capital has to cover SNAP lag, DABS beer, health-file lag, and a Monday AFS or UNFI drop. There is no lottery float to underwrite. How much working capital and buyer cash to close are the tools.
If the deal is an asset purchase, allocation is a CPA conversation. Taxes on selling keep that off the floor. Post-closing 90-day plan is Monday when the cooler still has to run and FNS has not posted.
Co-tenancy and exclusive-use clauses surprise civilians. Pull them before the LOI. CAM and exclusive use matter in a center that also holds Smith’s or WinCo. The LOI terms that matter for sellers should freeze assignment, inventory holdback, and the DABS beer class.
DABS beer class — not a phantom wine aisle — belongs in the Utah recast before any national band. No statewide sold-comp mean appears here.60–3.15**, and 0.43 average revenue multiple on the 2025 sold sample. Use 3.38 on a clean lease, a clean DABS beer path, and a recast a lender will take. Most Utah independents argue inside the IQR. Mix, remaining term, and control-state beer — not a phantom wine aisle — move the check. Inventory is added at cost after the multiple. This page does not invent a Utah sold-comp or a homemade SDE dollar. How to value a grocery, the valuation hub, and the multiples report are the method.
A Salt Lake Latino independent and a St. George conventional box can share a state and not share a multiple argument. Utah County rooftops and Ogden corridor hours are different teasers from a west-side valley produce case. Timeline to sell is the calendar: DABS, DHHS or local health, FNS, Tax Commission, landlord — and no lottery desk. Reasons deals fall apart is the failure list. Surviving due diligence is the seller companion.
Sell an independent supermarket and sell a rural grocery are format essays when the box fits. Keep reading SNAP when you sell. Tools: valuation calculator.
The operators who close Utah files usually already know that wine and spirits stay in DABS stores and that grocery beer still needs DABS plus local approval. Start outreach with people who have already survived a Salt Lake Valley Pacific-Islander or Latino mix, a Utah County suburban conventional week, an Ogden corridor independent, or a St. George in-migration box—not with a public listing that tells the produce crew you are leaving. Quiet process means DABS work stays off the sales floor while DHHS or local health and SNAP files are still in motion.
Do not model a wine aisle you cannot operate. Do not list lottery as a deal item—Utah does not operate a traditional state lottery. Pull the Tax Commission combined food rate table for the store address rather than hard-coding a statewide near-3% figure; prepared food is taxed at the full rate. Name Salt Lake Valley, Utah County, Ogden / Davis, or St. George after NDA. Scan and EBT settlement belong in the room before a serious offer. Occupancy is rent as a share of this store’s sales—this pack does not invent a Salt Lake grocery rent-per-foot table. Sequence DABS beer, Utah DHHS or local health, USDA FNS SNAP, Tax Commission clearance, and landlord consent as dated steps—and leave lottery off the checklist. Transition and training periods keep a produce lead in place after keys change. Working capital has to cover EBT downtime and a Monday Associated Food Stores or UNFI drop. Many independents live inside the AFS retailer family; confirm which house actually drops the store. Federal HFFI may apply; no dollar figure is recorded here.
Bring the lease, three years of returns, scan and EBT settlements, and the DABS beer privilege. Name Salt Lake Valley, Utah County, Ogden, or St. George—and leave lottery off the CIM—before anyone prices a phantom wine aisle. Book a confidential intro. Jason Taken will recast the Utah file and mark who already understands a control-state grocery.
Use this napkin recast on Sell a Utah grocery store when you book the call. It is labeled illustrative. BizBuySell's 2025 grocery sold-business earnings multiple averaged 3.38, with a 2021-2025 IQR of 1.60-3.15. State pages add the tax, wage, and alcohol-agency facts for this jurisdiction. They do not invent a local sold-comp set.
| Input or output | Illustrative figure |
|---|---|
| Weekly sales (illustrative) | $141,000 |
| Annual sales | $7,332,000 |
| Recast SDE | $344,604 (4.7% of sales) |
| Inventory at cost | $407,333 (~18 turns) |
| Occupancy check | $249,288 / year (3.4% of sales) |
| Low going-concern | $1,044,850 at 1.85x SDE + inventory |
| High going-concern | $1,492,836 at 3.15x SDE + inventory |
| Sketch DSCR on a note | 1.49 |
Rent at 3.4% 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.
Bring three years of P&Ls, weekly sales, and the lease abstract to the intro call. Jason will tell you whether this band is even in the conversation.
Print these, mark them up, and bring the marked copy to the intro. They are educational. They are not a valuation letter and not a listing. All downloadable guides.
Have the file ready so the hour is a recast, not a scavenger hunt. Then pick a time.
Get a grounded read on what buyers will pay
We recast SDE, separate inventory at cost, and price license risk. Download the seller playbook, then put 30 minutes on the calendar.
Get a Free Grocery Store Valuation ConversationNo. Utah is a NABCA control state. The Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services sells wine and spirits through DABS stores. Beer is sold in grocery. Confirm current beer-alcohol-content rules. Grocery beer privileges transfer only with DABS and local approval.
Utah does not operate a traditional state lottery. Do not list lottery as a deal item unless a later statute creates one. Confirm before you write it into a CIM.
No. Salt Lake Valley holds Pacific-Islander and Latino corridors. Utah County / Provo–Orem is fast-growth suburban conventional. Ogden / Davis is the north corridor. St. George / Washington County is in-migration plus seasonal and year-round growth. Package each as its own teaser.
Utah taxes food at a reduced combined state/local food rate. This pack does not hard-code a single statewide number. Prepared food is taxed at the full rate. Pull the Tax Commission combined food rate table for the store address.
DOL’s July 1, 2026 consolidated table lists Utah at the federal $7.25. Confirm Utah Labor Commission posters. Market grocery wages often sit above the floor; recast on what you will actually pay.
Sell on your terms, not on a listing site
HedgeStone Business Advisors runs a quiet process: recast, qualified operators, and a close that survives the count. The only next step is the intro call.
Book a Confidential Seller ConsultationThis page is educational information from Grocery Store Business Broker (HedgeStone Business Advisors). It is not legal, tax, or investment advice. Licensing, tax, and financing rules vary by state and deal. Confirm every item with counsel and your lender before you sign.
Ready when you are. Jason Taken will talk through the file.
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