Buying a Convenience Store: What It Costs to Buy an Existing Convenience Store and the Cash to Close

An existing US convenience store cost a median $210,000 to buy across 2021 to 2025, based on 692 closed BizBuySell sales of stores without fuel, on median revenue of $660,500 and median owner earnings of $119,495. Financed with an SBA 7(a) loan at 10 percent down, the cash you bring to that purchase is about $25,253 for the equity injection and the SBA guaranty fee, before inventory, working capital and closing costs. The inventory is usually a separate check, and at the median price it decides whether the deal leaves you a salary.

Most pages that answer this question price opening a new store: coolers, shelving, a point of sale system, a first stock order. Buying a running store is a different purchase. You pay for sales, a location and a customer base that already exist, and the price is set by the store's earnings and by what a lender will lend against them.

How much does it cost to buy a convenience store?

The median convenience store sold for $210,000, which is 1.76 times its $119,495 of seller discretionary earnings. The published median multiple is 1.82x and half of all convenience stores sold between 1.32x and 2.77x. In 2025 the median sale was $228,000, the highest of the five years. Stores with gas pumps are not in these figures; a store with fuel is priced as a gas station, and the median gas station sold for $615,000.

Seller discretionary earnings (SDE) is net profit plus the owner's pay, benefits, interest, depreciation and one-time costs, the cash one full-time owner takes out. Read the price off the earnings of the store in front of you:

Which column applies depends mostly on sales volume. BizBuySell states that a store doing more than $1.1 million of sales may sell for 2.8x or better, and one under $400,000 closer to 1.3x. Those thresholds sit on the quartile edges of sold revenue, $1,100,000 and $415,500. The full distribution, the year-by-year record and the comparison with twelve other retail categories are on our convenience store valuation page.

How much money do you need to buy a convenience store?

On a $210,000 convenience store financed with an SBA 7(a) loan, plan on about $25,253 of cash for the 10 percent injection and the guaranty fee, and about $31,265 if $50,000 of inventory goes on the same loan. Here is the arithmetic at three price points, computed at 10 years and 10.5 percent:

Fee tiers follow the FY2026 SBA schedule: 2 percent of the guaranteed portion on loans of $150,000 or less, 3 percent on loans from $150,001 to $700,000. Add working capital (a lender will want payroll, rent and a lottery settlement or two covered), legal fees for the purchase agreement, the landlord's assignment costs and license application fees. Our guide to using an SBA loan to buy a business covers the full closing list.

Read the last row carefully. The small store leaves its buyer $58,046 a year before any salary, which works only for a family that will run it themselves. The median store leaves $88,892, enough for an $80,000 draw with about $8,900 of cushion. Put the inventory on the loan and the cushion shrinks to about $1,600. In 2025 prices ($228,000 plus $50,000 of stock) it is gone: the buyer is $513 short of an $80,000 salary.

Is the inventory included in the price of a convenience store?

Usually not. Inventory is normally counted on the closing date and paid for at cost on top of the agreed business price, but whether a listed or sold price includes it varies from deal to deal. Ask on every listing and write the basis into the letter of intent: stock at the seller's invoice cost, counted by an independent inventory service the day before closing, with a cap so the number cannot drift upward between signing and closing.

Exclude or discount what you cannot sell: expired and short-dated food and beverages, damaged packaging, and slow-moving general merchandise. Lottery tickets are a separate matter. They run through the seller's account with the state lottery, and in Texas a lottery representative picks up tickets and equipment when a store closes and settles the packs, so keep them out of the inventory count and confirm with your state lottery how the seller's packs are settled. Cigarettes and other tobacco are high value and easy to miscount, so count them by carton.

Which licenses do you need when you buy a convenience store?

You need your own. The main ones do not transfer with the store. The Texas Lottery, for example, states that a Ticket Sales License is valid only at the named location and is nontransferable, and that a new owner must apply for a new license ($125 application fee, with fingerprints for a criminal history check). Federal rules say the same for food assistance: FNS issues a nontransferable SNAP authorization to the firm (7 CFR 278.1), so the buyer applies for their own EBT authorization.

Tobacco and beer and wine permits are issued by the state, and often by the city or county, and most need a new application or an approved transfer on a change of ownership. File every application as soon as the purchase agreement is signed, and make approval a condition of closing. If the lottery terminal or the EBT machine goes dark for a month, the store you bought is not the store whose earnings you paid for.

Ask the seller for the store's compliance history with each agency. Under 7 CFR 278.6, if a store that has been disqualified from SNAP is sold, the seller is liable for a civil money penalty for the part of the disqualification not yet served, which tells you how seriously the program treats a store's record. A tobacco sale-to-minor violation or a lottery suspension is a price item too.

Can you get an SBA loan to buy a convenience store?

Yes, and at the median price the arithmetic just works. At 10 years, 10.5 percent and 1.25x debt service coverage, the median store's $119,495 of earnings supports a bank loan of about $195,100 if the buyer takes $80,000 a year. At 10 percent down, that is a price of about $216,800, against a median sale of $210,000. Above the median, or with inventory on the loan, there are three usual fixes:

• A larger down payment. At 20 percent down the same earnings support about $243,900 of price; at 25 percent, about $260,200.
• A seller note. The seller carries part of the price, often on standby for a period so the lender treats it as equity. It also keeps the seller involved through the license approvals and the handover of suppliers.
• Inventory paid separately. Paying $50,000 of stock in cash takes total cash at closing on the median store to about $75,300, but keeps the stock off the loan.

Under SBA SOP 50 10 8 the lender must get an independent business valuation when the amount financed, less appraised real estate and equipment, is above $250,000, or when buyer and seller are related. At the median price a store can fall below that line, which saves you the fee. Above it, the lender orders the report. What it covers and what it costs are in our note on business valuation for an SBA loan.

What to check before you buy a convenience store

• Sales that are on the tax return. Convenience stores are cash-heavy. The lender prices the return, so any sales the seller describes but did not report are not in the price.
• Deposits against sales. Match twelve months of bank deposits to the point of sale reports and the returns. If the seller keeps the books in QuickBooks, you can load the seller's PDF bank statements into QuickBooks and reconcile them month by month instead of retyping every line.
• Sales by category. Pull twelve months by beer, beverages, snacks, prepared food, tobacco, lottery and general merchandise. Lottery and tobacco inflate revenue at thin margins, so two stores with the same top line can earn very different amounts.
• Lottery commission statements. They are the one income line a third party reports independently, so they are a useful check on the rest of the story.
• Owner hours and payroll. Get the staff schedule and the payroll register. At the BLS median cashier wage of $32,880 a year, every full-time shift the seller covers personally is about $35,400 of cost once you add employer FICA. Hire two and the median store's earnings fall to about $48,700.
• The lease. Remaining term plus options should cover the loan term. Check the assignment clause, any rent increase on transfer, and any exclusive-use clause that stops the landlord leasing to a competitor in the same center.
• Competition. A chain store with fuel opening nearby is the fastest way for a convenience store to lose sales. Check local permit filings for planned sites before you sign.

Before you pay a broker or appraiser, check the price against the sold record. Rebuild SDE from the returns (our walkthrough of how to calculate SDE shows the adjustments), then run it through the estimator at the top of this page. On a $210,000 store a full valuation report at $5,000 to $15,000 is 2.4 to 7.1 percent of the price, the highest share of any sector we track; our business valuation cost page compares the options.

Buying a convenience store: questions buyers ask

Is buying a convenience store worth it?

For an owner who will work the store, the numbers are reasonable: the median store earns $119,495 and sells for $210,000, and a financed buyer keeps about $88,900 after debt service. The market is also steady, with owner margins between 16.7 and 18.1 percent in every year from 2021 to 2025. For an absentee investor who hires all the shifts, the same store earns far less and is priced at more than 4x what remains.

How much does a convenience store owner make?

The median convenience store that sold produced $119,495 of seller discretionary earnings on $660,500 of revenue, an 18.1 percent margin. The lower quartile earned $71,872 and the upper quartile $180,294. Those figures include the owner's own pay and the value of the hours they work behind the counter.

What multiple should I pay for a convenience store?

Half of convenience stores sold between 1.32x and 2.77x owner earnings, with a median of 1.82x. The median sale price divided by median earnings is 1.76x, a good starting point for a typical store. The 2.39x average that is often quoted is pulled up by larger stores; applied to median earnings it overshoots the median sale by 36 percent.

How long does it take to buy a convenience store?

The median store that sold spent 165 days on the market. Once an offer is accepted, expect lender underwriting, the landlord assignment and the lottery, SNAP, tobacco and beer and wine applications to run in parallel, with closing conditioned on the approvals that carry income.

How do I know if a convenience store is priced fairly?

Rebuild owner earnings from the tax returns and point of sale reports, adjust for the hours the seller works, then compare the asking price with the sold range for a store of that sales volume. Listings ask a median 2.32x against 1.82x for stores that sold. The convenience store valuation page carries the full sold distribution and the financing ceiling side by side, and if you are weighing a store with a beer and spirits license, compare it with the liquor store valuation figures, where the median store sells for about twice as much.