About the data
A live record of California’s storefronts
BizSleuth maps businesses opening, closing, being sold and changing owners across California. Every event comes from a public record, and every event names the record it came from. It is free, it has no accounts, and it updates every day.
It covers storefronts: restaurants, bars, cafes, shops, salons, markets, repair shops, gyms, hotels and similar places with a door you can walk through. Contractors, consultants, online sellers and food trucks are left out.
What each event means
- Opened. A business registered a new location, or was issued a new license.
- Closed. A registration ended, or a license was cancelled or surrendered without moving to a new owner.
- For sale. A public notice says the business is being sold. Most notices give the closing date; few give a price.
- Changing owners. A liquor license is being transferred from one owner to another, which usually means the business itself is changing hands.
- Coming soon. Someone has applied for a new license at this address, ahead of opening.
Where the records come from
Openings and closings, with dates, for every business registered at a San Francisco address.
Openings, with start dates. The city lists only active businesses, so closings appear when a business drops off between monthly updates.
Openings, with start dates, for businesses inside city limits. San Diego does not publish closing dates, so a closing is dated by when its registration ended, and says so.
Openings and closings, with dates. Addresses are placed on the map with the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder; home-based businesses are left out.
New liquor license applications, transfers to new owners, and cancellations, for bars, restaurants, markets and other licensed premises statewide.
California requires public notice before most sales of a business. Each notice names the business, its address and usually the date the sale closes.
Business locations across the country, with an open or closed flag. Used only as a secondary signal, and marked as reported.
What it does not do yet
- Coverage is deepest in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where the cities publish their business registries. Elsewhere in California, events come from liquor licensing and sale notices, so bars, restaurants and markets are covered far better than other kinds of businesses.
- Sale notices are collected from San Francisco and Sacramento papers so far. Sales elsewhere are under-counted until more papers are added.
- Registry dates are the dates a business registered, which can be weeks before or after the doors actually opened or closed.
- Closures marked “reported” come from map data that is sometimes wrong. Treat them as a lead, not a fact.
- History starts in late 2026, when collection began, except where a city keeps its own.
Businesses, not people
BizSleuth describes storefronts. Public records often name individual owners, buyers and sellers; those names are never shown. When a record identifies a business only by a person’s name, the map shows the kind of business instead, such as “New restaurant.”
The monthly Storefront Report
What opened, closed and sold in California cities, with trends, businesses changing hands and storefronts that turned over. By email, once a month.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, or you own a business and want an entry reviewed, email corrections@bizsleuth.com. Mistakes are fixed or removed.
Credits
Map tiles by OpenFreeMap, using OpenMapTiles and data from OpenStreetMap contributors. Business locations in part from the Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0). Addresses placed using the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder.