Brookharbor Lenders in Charleston, West Virginia passes funding requests from Kanawha County grocers and corner stores to funding partners. This page covers cases and refrigeration, convenience stores, bulk buys, liquor store questions and county grocery counts.
At a glance
- Grocery stores
Grocery stores, including convenience stores, Kanawha County, WV: 33 employer establishments (CBP 2023)
- Grocery employees
Grocery stores, Kanawha County, WV: 1,131 paid employees (CBP 2023)
- Gas stations with convenience stores
Gasoline stations with convenience stores, Kanawha County, WV: 71 employer establishments (CBP 2023)
Grocery Store Financing for Refrigerated Cases in a Kanawha County, WV Market
Refrigerated and freezer cases hold the perishable stock of a market and run around the clock. Replacing old open cases with door cases, or adding a run of freezers, is a classic equipment purchase.
Bring the installed quote, including refrigeration lines, electrical work and removal of the old cases. A partner will look at sales history and how long the store has operated. Case loans and leases are explained on the equipment financing page.
Convenience Store Loans for a Charleston, WV Corner Store
A corner store buys coolers, shelving, a point-of-sale system and stock. Kanawha County, WV had 8 convenience stores with employees in 2023, counted inside the 33 grocery stores, and separately 72 gasoline stations, 71 of them with convenience stores (County Business Patterns).
Corner stores with fuel have a second set of questions: dispensers, tanks and canopy work, which carry their own permit and inspection steps. Those belong in a separate conversation from the store equipment.
Inside the store, the purchases are smaller but frequent: a reach-in cooler for drinks, a slicer and a deli case, wire shelving, security cameras and a register that handles cards and electronic benefits. A store owner can bundle several of these on one equipment quote so that one loan covers the refit, rather than signing a separate agreement for each item.
Business Loan for a Grocery Store Buying in Bulk
Buying in bulk or on a supplier promotion can lower the cost per case, but it ties up cash until the stock sells. A short inventory loan sized to the buy, repaid as the stock sells, can make the saving real without draining the account.
Work out the saving first: if the discount is smaller than the interest and fees on the loan, the bulk buy does not pay. The inventory financing page explains stock-backed loans and lines.
Shelf life sets the limit on any bulk buy. Canned goods and paper products can sit for months; dairy, produce and meat cannot. A request built on a bulk purchase of slow-moving or perishable stock reads very differently from one built on staples the store sells every day, so name the products and show how fast each moved last year.
Liquor Store Loan Questions in West Virginia: Stock and Lease
A West Virginia store that sells liquor or plans to add it faces license questions before any funding questions. Retail liquor licensing in the state runs through the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration; confirm the license status and any transfer steps with that office before relying on liquor sales in a funding request.
For funding, a liquor store's needs look like any store's: stock bought ahead of sale, shelving and coolers, and the lease. A partner will want sales records and the license details.
Kanawha County, WV Grocery Employers: 33 Stores, Convenience Stores Included
County Business Patterns counted 33 grocery stores with employees in Kanawha County, WV in 2023, a figure that includes the 8 convenience stores counted under their own code. The 33 had 1,131 employees and an annual payroll of about $33.1 million; 9 had fewer than five employees.
Nonemployer Statistics, a separate program using a 2022 code that also covers convenience retailers and vending machine operators, counted 16 grocery and convenience retailers with no paid employees in 2024.
An Invented Freezer-Case Swap for a Neighborhood Market
Illustration only, invented figures: a neighborhood market in Charleston, WV replaces a run of open freezer cases with door cases for $32,000 installed. It finances them over five years at an invented annual rate of 10%.
In this invented case the market pays about $679.91 a month for five years; those 60 payments total about $40,794, putting the financing cost near $8,794 (our arithmetic). The owner would set the payment against expected savings on spoiled stock and electricity, using the utility's and vendor's figures, not a guess.
Vendor Invoices, Shrink Reports and Leases a Grocer Can Bring
- Vendor invoices and supplier statements.
- Sales reports by department, if the register system produces them.
- Shrink or spoilage reports, which show what better cases could save.
- Business bank statements and card statements.
- The store lease, with its remaining term.
Partners differ; gather these when one asks.
By Brookharbor Lenders · Updated