The numbers
As stated by the listing on September 28, 2026.
- Asking price
- $650,000
- SDE
- $325,000
- Multiple
- 2.00x
Why we like it
A chain supermarket stocks for volume, so it drops the specific bread, the correctly cured sausage, or the imported pickled goods that a Polish, Russian, or Balkan household actually wants, because that item doesn't sell fast enough to earn shelf space. That gap is permanent, not cyclical, which is why a customer will drive past three big-box grocers to reach a market that carries the one brand they grew up on. This store runs as a full operation rather than a specialty aisle: a deli counter for weighed and sliced goods, a dry goods section built on imports, and prepared foods, sitting on a Long Island street inside driving distance of the community it serves. Start with the supplier list, because a business like this runs on a handful of import distributors rather than the broad domestic distribution a normal grocer uses, and those vendors set minimum orders and absorb shipping delays that the buyer inherits along with the inventory. Then separate how much of the cash flow comes off the deli and prepared foods counter versus straight shelf sales, because a scratch deli is really a second, labor-intensive business sitting inside the grocery store, with its own health permits and its own dependence on who shows up to run it. Growth here likely comes less from more foot traffic through a fixed storefront than from pushing the deli and prepared side into catering or wholesale to local restaurants.
You probably need a licence to run this
New York requires retail food stores to be registered or licensed, and a deli and prepared foods counter typically needs its own county health permit plus food handler certification for whoever works it, though that certification can sit with an employee rather than the buyer personally. The listing doesn't say whether the store sells beer or wine, which is common in this niche; if it does, the state liquor license is tied to the current owner and doesn't automatically transfer, so the buyer would need to apply fresh and could face a gap before being able to sell alcohol.
What worries us
- Owner dependence on supplier relationships and product knowledgeSpecialty importing runs on personal relationships with a small number of distributors, and the current owner likely built those over years along with judgment about which products this specific customer base actually wants. If that knowledge and those relationships don't transfer cleanly, the shelf can quietly drift away from what made the store a destination in the first place.
- Perishable inventory and a thin import supply chainDeli meats, cheeses, and prepared foods carry real spoilage risk, and niche imports move through fewer distributors than a mainstream grocer's supply chain, which means less cushion against a shipping delay, a minimum order the store can't hit alone, or a supplier that quietly discontinues a product line.
- Narrow customer base tied to one community and one locationA store built around specific regional products depends on a customer base that wants those specific products, in one specific area. A demographic shift in the surrounding community, or a competitor stocking similar imports nearby, would hit this store harder than it would hit a general grocer with a broad customer base.
The callSuits a buyer who already knows this specialty grocery niche or its customer community personally; a buyer with no ethnic-food or deli background will struggle to replace what the owner brings.
Our calculations
Our standard SBA 7(a) acquisition structure applied to the asking price. Assumptions below.
Sources
| SBA 7(a) loan | $615,004 |
| Seller standby note | $34,167 |
| Buyer cash at close | $34,167 |
| Total sources | $683,338 |
Uses
| Purchase price | $650,000 |
| Closing costs (est.) | $19,500 |
| SBA guaranty fee | $13,838 |
| Total project | $683,338 |
- Monthly payment
- $7,874
- Annual debt service
- $94,489
- DSCR
- 2.02xSTRONG
- Injection check
- Meets 10% ($68,334 against $68,334 required)
- Closing costs estimated at 3% of asking price
- Owner salary of $120,000, loaded
- Rate of Prime + 2.25% = 9.25%
- 10-year term, fully amortizing
- Injection split half cash, half seller standby note
How we would go about buying it
The order matters. Every step below is free until the last one, and each is a chance to walk away before it costs you anything.
- 1
Call the broker, not the bank
The listing is brokered, so the broker is the gate. Ask for the CIM and the last three years of tax returns, and expect to sign an NDA first. Do this before you talk to a lender: no lender will size a loan without the numbers, and the broker will not release them to a lender you have not engaged.
Open the listing - 2
Ask these before you spend anything
Specific to this business, from our read of the listing. The answers decide whether the numbers above survive contact.
- How many distinct import distributors supply the store, and what share of purchases comes from the single largest one?
- Does the store currently hold a beer or wine license, and if so, what would be involved in transferring or reapplying for it under new ownership?
- What share of the stated cash flow comes from the deli and prepared foods counter versus packaged retail, and who runs deli production day to day?
- What's the remaining lease term, rent escalation schedule, and is there a personal guarantee attached to it?
- How much of the customer base is repeat and local versus one-time walk-in, and does the store already do any wholesale or catering business?
- 3
Take it to lenders who do this size
Talk to more than one. Rate is the least of it: the lender who has done fifty of these in New York will close, and the one who has done two will waste your quarter. Below are the lenders whose typical deal size actually fits this one.
- 4
Structure the offer around the coverage
Our structure clears the floor at 2.02x, and a lender will run its own version with its own add-backs. If the earnings come back lower than stated, the price has to come down or the seller note has to grow. Model both before you make an offer.
Model it yourself
Who we would call
Active New York acquisition lenders whose typical deal size fits this one.
- Live Oak Banking Company
45 loans in NYmedian $1,000,000median rate 9.00%~20 days to first disbursement
- Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company
43 loans in NYmedian $387,000median rate 9.00%~42 days to first disbursement
- Huntington National Bank
33 loans in NYmedian $350,000median rate 9.25%~32 days to first disbursement
Loan counts and medians are that lender’s change-of-ownership loans in New York, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3. Funding speed is the lender’s national median from approval to first disbursement. Names link to our data profile for each lender.
The fine print
The statements this write-up makes about the trade and its rules, as opposed to the figures, were checked against public sources on September 28, 2026. 5 claims were checked.
Worth verifying yourself
These are industry statements we could not confirm against an authoritative public source. They are not contradicted by anything we found, but treat them as leads to check rather than settled facts.
- European specialty markets with deli and prepared foods sections typically source through a small number of specialized import distributors rather than broad domestic distribution networks.
- Import distributors commonly impose minimum order quantities and are more exposed to shipping delays than mainstream domestic grocery distribution.
- Specialty grocery businesses often grow by expanding wholesale or catering relationships with restaurants rather than solely through increased retail foot traffic.
Run your own numbers
The deal analyzer models price, seller note, equity injection, and DSCR under current SBA terms, with every assumption adjustable.
Open the deal analyzerListing facts as stated by the listing on September 28, 2026, not independently verified. Structure, payment, DSCR, and injection figures are our own computation under the assumptions above, using the Prime rate as of September 28, 2026. Lender shortlist from the SBA 7(a) FOIA file, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3, as of June 30, 2026. Methodology. See an error? Email us and we will correct it.