Washington new business openings in October 2026, by the numbers

This is the second monthly count from The Morning Sheet. Every figure comes from a query against our database of Washington public records, run on November 3, 2026. The definitions are the same as last month, so the two months can be set side by side.

What counts as a new business opening

A business counts for October 2026 when all three of these are true:

1. It is a Washington business in our lead feed, in either the food vertical (restaurants, cafes, bars, bakeries, and similar) or the retail vertical.
2. Our scoring classifies it as a new opening: a brand-new business, a new location of an existing local operator, or a new location of a chain. Businesses that are already operating, changing owners, or adding a liquor privilege are left out.
3. Its earliest pre-opening filing is dated between October 1 and October 31, 2026. A pre-opening filing is a new business license, a liquor license application to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, a health department plan review, or a building or trade permit for the space.

The date is the date on the filing itself, not the date we found it. Businesses whose first filing came in earlier months are counted in those months, even if their permit or license moved in October.

The core numbers

A month keeps growing for weeks after it ends, because filings reach the public record late. So the table compares October with September at the same point, three days after each month closed, and then shows where September stands today.

Source: The Morning Sheet, from Washington public records. Counted by the month of each business's earliest pre-opening filing. The first column is September as we counted it on October 3, 2026; the other two are as of November 3, 2026.

September grew by 27 after we published it. We reported 102 food businesses on October 8; the same query now returns 129. Most of the growth came from liquor applications that posted to the state dataset weeks after their filing date. Read any month's first count as a floor.

October starts lower: 73 food businesses, against 95 for September at the same point. That gap may close as late filings arrive, or it may hold. For a vendor, even the early count is more than two new food accounts a day across the state, each one choosing suppliers, a payment system, insurance, and payroll for the first time.

70 of the 73 are independents. Only 3 are chain locations, down from 8 in September's early count. Independents pick their own vendors locally, so almost the whole October list is open to a local rep. 18 of the 73 are a local operator's second location, a buyer who has been through an opening before and often knows which vendors to call.

Where the openings were

King County had 29 of the 73 (40%). That is a larger share than in September, where King finished with 45 of 129 (35%). Our Seattle new business page lists the current ones.

Seattle alone had 22 (30%). Tacoma had 6 and Spokane 5; no other city had more than 2. A rep whose territory is one city still finds most of the volume in Seattle.

Pierce County had 9, already more than its 7 at this point in September. Six of them are in Tacoma, where the city publishes new business licenses. The Tacoma page shows what is building out there now.

Snohomish County had 8, and 3 of them are chain locations, which accounts for every October chain in the state. Snohomish is the one county where we read health department plan reviews, filed weeks to months before opening; the Everett page has the live list.

Spokane County had 6, 5 of them in the city of Spokane. September's count there has grown from 8 at this point to 11.

21 openings came from 9 other counties. The October count spans 13 of Washington's 39 counties so far, against 22 for September now. Chelan and Lewis had 4 each; the rest had 1 to 3.

The top cities for new food businesses in October were Seattle (22), Tacoma (6), and Spokane (5). Bremerton, Chehalis, Dayton, Everett, Lynnwood, Okanogan, Snohomish, and Wenatchee had 2 each.

What they filed first

How a business first shows up tells you how early you are. Of the 73 October food openings, the first record we have was:

• A liquor license application: 41 (56%). September ended at 92 of 129 (71%).
• A new business license: 20 (27%). September ended at 21.
• A health department plan review: 8 (11%). Also 8 for September.
• A building or trade permit: 4 (5%). September ended at 8.

The early count leans less on liquor applications for a reason. Liquor applications reach the state dataset on a delay, so liquor-first businesses keep arriving for weeks after a month closes. September's liquor-first count rose from 65 when we published it to 92 now, and October's share will likely rise the same way.

Liquor applications are still the one statewide filing. The Liquor and Cannabis Board publishes every new application in its local authority letters dataset, and by law it notifies the city or county, which gets 20 days to object (RCW 66.24.010). For a beverage distributor or a liquor liability insurer, a new application means the owner has committed to serving alcohol and has not opened yet.

Business licenses and plan reviews depend on where you sell. The 20 license-first openings came from city license data in Seattle (12), Tacoma (6), and Bellevue (2). The 8 plan reviews were all in Snohomish County. Outside those places, a business's first public trace is more often its liquor application, which usually comes after the build-out permits. Our restaurant opening timeline shows which vendor decisions are still open at each step.

Retail

9 new retail businesses in October so far, against 21 for September at the same point. King County had 6 of them. September's retail count finished at 25. Retail is a smaller count because we only include a retail license once there is evidence of a storefront; home-based online sellers are filtered out. With fewer than 10 businesses, October retail is too small to split further this early.

How to read these numbers

October will move up. The median October filing reached our feed 10 days after its filing date, and September added 27 businesses in the month after its first count. We will restate October next month beside the November count.

Coverage differs by county. A county with city license data or a plan review feed shows businesses earlier and in greater number than one where the liquor board is the only source. Compare a county with itself month to month, not with its neighbor.

A chain location is a new site of a known brand. Our scoring marks it; store count alone does not. A local operator opening a second spot counts as an independent.

The November 2026 report publishes in early December.