NAICS 445310 · California overview

Beer, Wine & Liquor Stores in Sacramento County

Sacramento County had 145 Liquor Stores establishments in 2023, ranking 8 of 45 California counties and accounting for 3.3% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
145
Rank 8 of 45 counties
Employees
642
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$19M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.9
1,618,460 residents

More recent reading

BLS QCEW, 2026Q1

The figures above are County Business Patterns, which carries the size distribution but runs about two years behind. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes quarterly, so this is the same industry roughly 3 years later. The two count different universes, Census counts establishments with paid employees in the March pay period and BLS counts worksites covered by unemployment insurance during the quarter, so the numbers are not directly comparable and either can be the larger.

Establishments
147
2026Q1
Employment
645
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$577
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+3.5%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

0.82 location quotient. Liquor Stores is about as concentrated in Sacramento County as it is nationally.

Computed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not derived here. Above 1.0 means the industry is a larger share of local employment than of national employment.

Establishments by size

Employee-count distribution for Liquor Stores in Sacramento County. 11 of 145 establishments (8%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-411377.9%
5-92013.8%
10-1964.1%
20-4953.4%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 8.2% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
2020134n/a
2021143+9
20221430
2023145+2

How this market compares

Sacramento County against every other county in California on the same measure. The median excludes places under 2,000 residents, where per-capita figures are arithmetically true but analytically useless.

Typical0.9 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 0.9

Close to the state median for this industry. Provision is roughly what the population would predict.

Vs state median
-4%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#8
of 45 counties
Rank by density
#25
of 45 ranked
Since 2020
+8%
Change in establishments

Density compares beer, wine & liquor stores provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Sacramento tracks the California size distribution closely.

Share of establishmentsSacramentoCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer77.9%74.8%+3.1%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target21.4%23.6%-2.2%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing7.6%7.6%+0.0%

What acquirers look at

The California ABC license is often the single most valuable asset, and transfer runs its own 60 to 90 day timeline independent of the deal.

Cities in Sacramento

The figures above cover the county as a whole. These are the places within it.

Other industries in Sacramento

Sources

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns. Establishment counts, employment and annual payroll by NAICS. Retrieved 2026-09-08.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (2026Q1). Quarterly establishment counts and employment for employers covered by unemployment insurance. Retrieved 2026-09-08.