Employment
166,164
Total employees (Census CBP)
Retail Trade ·NAICS 4452
NAICS 4452 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Specialty Food Stores - Industry Benchmarks
$27,293/yr average annual pay, with 2,887 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4452.
- 4.2%
- Retail Trade sector margin
- 166K
- Workers employed
- $27,293/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.3B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4452
California leads Specialty Food Stores activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Retail Trade sector runs a 4.2% net margin.
- 4.2%
- Retail Trade sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 166K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $27,293/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.3B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Specialty Food Stores
Specialty Food Stores sits inside Retail Trade, a sector that runs a 4.2% net margin overall.
23,926 establishments employ 166,164 workers (6.9/location) at $27,293/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Texas.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$27,293/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
23,926
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 1,731; establishment count increased by 133. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $4.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 6.9
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Fish and Seafood Markets NAICS 44522 | N/A |
| Fruit and Vegetable Markets NAICS 44523 | N/A |
| Meat Markets NAICS 44521 | N/A |
| Other Specialty Food Stores NAICS 44529 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 20,639 |
| New York | 15,404 |
| Texas | 11,135 |
| Florida | 9,975 |
| Pennsylvania | 7,836 |
| New Jersey | 6,879 |
| Michigan | 6,526 |
| Illinois | 6,143 |
| Ohio | 5,961 |
| Washington | 4,783 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
2,887
Total Loan Volume
$1.3B
Avg Loan Size
$463K
Jobs Supported
38,840
Program Breakdown
7(a) 2,624 (91%)
504 263 (9%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
251 loans in this industry
New Business Share
37.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 327
2021 483
2022 429
2023 491
2024 519
2025 558
2026 80
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Specialty Food Stores?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 4452 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Retail Trade sector runs a 4.2% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Specialty Food Stores?
23,926 business establishments. Together they employ 166,164 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Specialty Food Stores?
$27,293/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 6.9 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Specialty Food Stores employment?
California leads with 20,639 workers. New York (15,404) and Texas (11,135) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Specialty Food Stores receive?
Specialty Food Stores businesses received 2,887 SBA loans totaling $1.3 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $463K. These loans supported 38,840 jobs at origination. Most lending (91%) 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.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 45% of that same 259-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Specialty Food Stores
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Retail Trade
- 23,926 establishments, 166,164 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 2,887 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
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 4452 · 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.