Hazelgrove Lending Group helps retail stores in Redding, CA and Shasta County compare retail business loans: inventory financing for stock, lines of credit for reorders and uneven months, equipment financing for fixtures and POS, and merchant cash advances. Shasta County counted 618 retail employers in 2023. This page covers boutiques, hardware, pharmacy and gift retailers, with a stock example.
| Retail employers, Shasta County, CA (2023) | 618 |
|---|---|
| Clothing and accessories stores | 53 |
| Lumber, hardware and garden dealers | 57 |
| Health and personal care stores | 57 |
| Needs this page covers | Stock ahead of sales, fixtures, reorders |
| Structures to compare | Stock financing first, then a line |
Stock first, sales later
Retailers order weeks or months ahead, pay suppliers on delivery or soon after, and recover the cost as the goods sell. A store that sells through its stock can reorder from its own cash; one that is growing, adding a product line or buying ahead of a promotion needs money for stock it has not sold yet. Card fees, returns and markdowns all shave the cash that comes back.
Retail inventory financing
Retail inventory financing pays for that stock and is usually secured by the goods themselves. It suits larger, planned orders: a full season's clothing, a garden center's spring stock, a new product line. For frequent small reorders, a line of credit can fit. Detail is on the inventory financing page.
Boutique business loans
A boutique business loan can pay for the next collection before the current one has sold through, or for fixtures and a POS system when the shop opens or moves. Fashion-sensitive goods can lose value if they sit, so partners may look at sell-through history and markdowns.
Shelving, lighting and remodels
Shelving, displays, lighting and a remodel are long-life costs better suited to equipment financing or a term loan than to inventory money. Keep the two separate so that a slow stretch does not leave stock and fixtures competing for the same payment.
Merchant cash advances and retail
A retailer with card sales can have those receipts collected under a merchant cash advance. An advance is not a loan: it buys a share of future card receipts and is collected daily. Compare its total cost with inventory financing or a line before choosing it; the merchant cash advance page explains how.
Illustrative example: a season's order
Hypothetical figures, not an offer. A boutique places a $30,000 order, paid on delivery, and expects to sell it over about 12 weeks at roughly double its cost. If the shop pays the full order from its account, it may be short for rent and payroll for the first month or two of the season. Financing the order and repaying it weekly as the goods sell, about $2,500 a week before any cost of financing, keeps the account steady.
If sell-through is slower than planned, the repayment still comes due. Order sizes should reflect last season's actual sales, not the strongest week.
Reading your own inventory turnover
Inventory turnover is the cost of goods sold over a year divided by the average value of inventory on hand. In an invented example, a store that sold $240,000 of goods at cost while carrying an average of $60,000 in stock turned its inventory four times. Partners use the same idea to judge how fast financed stock will come back as cash. Work it out for each department if you can; a fast-turning line can carry financing that a slow one cannot.
Markdowns and returns
Stock that sells only after markdowns returns less cash than its cost suggests. When you size an order, use last season's actual sell-through after markdowns and returns, not the full-price plan.
Lumber, hardware and garden dealers: stock and receivables
Lumber yards, hardware stores and garden centers can hold bulky stock, and some extend credit to contractor customers, which ties up cash in inventory and again in receivables. Shasta County counted 57 such dealers with employees in 2023, and only 16 (28.1%) had fewer than five employees, so many of these stores have crews of five or more; a request from one can mix inventory financing with forklifts and delivery trucks.
Retail in Shasta County, CA
Retail trade counted 618 employer establishments in Shasta County in 2023, 35.6% of them with fewer than five employees (County Business Patterns). Within retail: 57 building material and garden supply dealers (NAICS 444), 57 health and personal care stores (4461), 53 clothing and accessories stores (448), 53 other miscellaneous retailers such as gift and specialty shops (4539) and 20 furniture and home furnishings stores (442). Clothing stores had 10 establishments in ZIP 96001 and health and personal care stores 18.
Nonemployer Statistics counted 1,130 retail businesses without employees in the county in 2024, including 194 miscellaneous retailers and 122 clothing and accessories sellers, from a different program and year than the employer counts.
What partners usually review
- Bank statements and card settlement reports
- Sales history and inventory turnover
- Purchase orders or supplier invoices for the stock
- The store lease
- Loans and advances already in place, with their payment sizes
Related pages: gas stations and convenience stores, restaurants, all industries and the Redding, CA data page.
