Does anybody know of any studies on average occupancy costs for grocery stores?
I am evaluating an acquisition and I am worried about the total rent (base rent and opex reimbursements) in relation to the gross sales of the store.  I always thought grocery stores tried to keep this cost below 4%, but I don't know where I got that number from.  While I welcome your anecdotal info, I really need a formal study or something that I can send to investors.  
[{"id": "cppaxqg", "text": "The Urban Land Institute put out a report in 2008 called Dollars &amp; Cents, but it hasn't been published since then.  That's the only support I know of in a formal survey for these figures.", "replies": [{"id": "cppg95f", "text": "I used to use that all the time when I was an appraiser and I completely forgot about it.  Thanks for the reminder! ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cpqhmy7", "text": "We sell quick service restaurants and usually like to see below 10% rent to sales.... not sure if grocery is the same...", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cpr0sz8", "text": "I have always used a rule of thumb 5%, I did some causal googling - found this, they say the average was 4.26% for natural food stores \n\nhttp://www.wholefoodsmagazine.com/grocery/features/2013-wholefoods-retailer-survey\n\n1% for convenience stores\n\nhttp://www.pacificedc.org/Library%20Docs/Convenience%20Stores%20Industry%20Snapshot.pdf\n\n\n", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]