Retail Trade ·NAICS 445

NAICS 445 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

Food and Beverage Stores - Industry Benchmarks

$29,308/yr average annual pay, with 12,030 SBA loans on record for NAICS 445.

2.6%
Net margin
3.3M
Workers employed
$29,308/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$7.9B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated July 2026

The verdict · NAICS 445

Food and Beverage Stores runs a 2.6% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 160K establishments employing 3.3M workers.

2.6%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
3.3M
Workers employed (Census CBP)
$29,308/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$7.9B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Benchmarking Insights for Food and Beverage Stores

Food and Beverage Stores sits inside Retail Trade at a 2.6% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $688.3B in aggregate receipts across 97,488 returns, averaging $7.1B per establishment.

160,298 establishments employ 3,333,898 workers (20.8/location) at $29,308/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and New York.

Profit Margin

2.6%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$688.3B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$18.0B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

3,333,898

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$29,308/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

160,298

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 5,510; establishment count increased by 1,259. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

Where each dollar of Food and Beverage Stores revenue goes

Workforce scale

Food and Beverage Stores margin vs national reference points

Food and Beverage Stores net margin 8.7%
Cross-industry median (5%)

p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%

Business Structure Breakdown

How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)

C Corporation
97,488 returns 100%

Margin: 2.6% · Receipts: $688.3B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
97,488
Avg Receipts per Business
$7.1B
Annual Payroll (Total)
$97.7B
Avg Employees per Establishment
20.8

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Beer, Wine, and Liquor Stores

NAICS 4453

 1.7%
Grocery Stores

NAICS 4451

 2.8%
Specialty Food Stores

NAICS 4452

 N/A

Top States by Employment

State Employment
California 371,696
Texas 286,222
New York 220,857
Pennsylvania 151,396
North Carolina 131,996
New Jersey 106,049
Massachusetts 104,787
Ohio 100,044
Virginia 94,311
Michigan 73,698

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

12,030

Total Loan Volume

$7.9B

Avg Loan Size

$655K

Jobs Supported

111,443

Program Breakdown

7(a) 11,101 (92%)
504 929 (8%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

724 loans in this industry

New Business Share

33.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020
1,503
2021
2,157
2022
1,652
2023
1,974
2024
2,067
2025
2,344
2026
333

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Food and Beverage Stores?
$688.3B in total annual receipts across all Food and Beverage Stores businesses. Average per business: $7.1B.
How profitable is Food and Beverage Stores?
2.6% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Food and Beverage Stores?
160,298 business establishments. Together they employ 3,333,898 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Food and Beverage Stores?
$29,308/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 20.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Food and Beverage Stores employment?
California leads with 371,696 workers. Texas (286,222) and New York (220,857) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Food and Beverage Stores receive?
Food and Beverage Stores businesses received 12,030 SBA loans totaling $7.9 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $655K. These loans supported 111,443 jobs at origination. Most lending (92%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Comparable industry benchmarks

These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.

Closest reported net margins

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.

Closest workforce scale

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.

Benchmarking Food and Beverage Stores

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.

Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023

NAICS 445 · Data year: 2023

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023

Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.