Bahama Buck's
Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars
How franchisees’ loans performed
Every SBA-guaranteed loan to a Bahama Buck's franchisee approved between 2012–2018. This is the only public record of what happened to people who actually bought this franchise — the disclosure document does not report it.
Rates below count only finished loans — ones that have been repaid in full or written off. A loan still being repaid has not succeeded yet, and counting it as though it had would make every brand look better than it is.
14 of 57 finished loans were charged off
24.6% of finished loans charged off
- Loans on record
- 69
- Finished — repaid or written off
- 57
- Outcome withheld by SBA
- 5
- Median loan approved
- $303,000
How that splits by when the loan was approved
| Approved | Loans | Finished | Still running | Outcome withheld | Charged off | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before 2015 | 26 | 23 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 13.0% |
| 2015-2019 | 43 | 34 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 32.4% |
Read the newest row with care. A franchise that fails does so in its first two or three years, while one that succeeds takes the full term to repay — so recent vintages are weighted towards failures and toward loans that have not finished. That cuts both ways: it can overstate the risk of a brand that has simply been lending recently, and it can be the first sign of a system getting worse. The last two columns are there so you can see which: a loan still being repaid may yet go either way, while one whose outcome the SBA withholds will never tell us.
By dollar rather than by loan: SBA wrote off $2,881,588 of the $19,000,600 it lent on finished loans — 15.2%, against 24.6% by count. The two differ because failures are not the same size as successes, and because a default late in the term recovers most of the loan. Neither is the truer figure; they answer different questions.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration 7(a) FOIA disclosure data. A loan is counted only once it has been repaid in full or charged off — loans still running are neither a success nor a failure, and counting them as repaid would flatter every brand here. Loans whose status SBA withheld are excluded from the figures above and shown separately. The median is the loan approved, not the cost of opening — most projects are financed with additional capital.
What the loan record cannot tell you about Bahama Buck's
Above is who borrowed to buy in and who never paid it back — a public record, free here and always.
This franchisor states what an average outlet takes in a year. That figure, and the fees that come out of it, are what access opens.
One brand of your choosing opens free with an account, for a year. From $49 for more, up to $199 for every brand we have read. Nothing renews itself.
Takes an email and a password. You land back here and choose which brand to open — it stays open for a year. Or see what more costs.Already have an account?
What that opens
- What this filing states an average outlet takes in a year
- Every ongoing fee in Item 6 priced in dollars a year, not just the royalty
- How many franchisees left that year, which a headline outlet count hides
- How long the agreement binds you, and on what terms it renews
- Whether the franchisor earns from the suppliers it requires you to use
- A five-year model you drive with your own rent, wages, borrowing and ramp
The loan record stays free — how many of this brand’s franchisees borrowed from a bank to buy in, and how many never paid it back. That is a public government record and we do not charge for it. What you pay for is only what we read out of the franchisor’s own disclosure document.