Butcher Shop and Meat Market Revenue Benchmark

Average Butcher Shop Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every retail meat market with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of shops gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$2,010,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $11.7 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 5,798 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $2,010,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Meat Retailers, NAICS 445240. The category covers retail meat markets and butcher shops. Grocery stores with meat counters and fish and seafood markets are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 4452: 445230 Fruit and Vegetable Retailers; 445250 Fish and Seafood Retailers; 445291 Baked Goods Retailers, and 2 further codes. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Specialty Food Retailers, NAICS 4452, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 45.8 to 52.5 percent. This benchmark covers Specialty Food Retailers, NAICS 4452, as a whole, and this category accounts for 5,798 of the 23,982 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Meat Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 13.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share because the meat itself is the main purchase, though the skilled cutting behind the counter sets this trade apart from self-service grocery.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish cost of goods, so nothing on this page shows what a shop keeps after paying for the meat it sells.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Meat Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 9.0 people, and the industry counted 1.1 employer establishments per firm. A meat market needs cutters, counter staff and someone on ordering and compliance, and the establishments per firm figure shows a trade made up largely of single shops rather than chains.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Butcher Shop and Meat Market: what yield, waste and sourcing do to a revenue figure.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• How much of the carcass becomes sellable product? Yield from primals or whole animals into retail cuts decides the real cost of what reaches the counter, and trim, bone and spoilage are absorbed by the shop. Two shops buying the same meat can keep very different amounts depending on cutting skill and product mix.
• Where does the meat come from? Buying whole animals from local farms, primals from a wholesaler or boxed beef from a large packer produces different costs, different quality claims and different customers. The sourcing model shapes both revenue and margin and does not appear in a census total.
• Which products carry the margin? House-made sausages, marinades, prepared meals and holiday specialties often earn more per pound than plain cuts, and a deli counter changes the labor mix. The share of value-added products is a central choice a revenue figure cannot show.
• What does compliance and cold storage cost? Refrigeration, food safety inspections, licensing and the energy behind a constant cold chain are fixed costs that a small shop carries regardless of volume. Equipment failure can destroy a week of stock in an afternoon.
• Who competes for the same customer? Supermarket meat counters, warehouse clubs and online meat delivery all sell the same categories, usually at lower prices. A specialist shop competes on cutting, provenance and advice, and how much a local market values those varies by town.
• How seasonal is the trade? Grilling season and the holidays bring peaks that a shop must staff and stock for, while quiet months strain cash flow. An annual average hides the weeks that decide whether the year worked.