Retail Sales
Tri-Cities, TN Retail Sales Market Share
The data below shows that Johnson City has increased its retail sales share of the total retail sales in the Tri-Cities area. The new retail establishments added in Kingsport in the last few years has not stopped its loss of market share.
| Period | Johnson City | Kingsport | Bristol |
| 2nd Qtr. 09 | 42.9% | 31.8% | 25.3% |
| 2008 | 42.2% | 31.5% | 26.3% |
| 2007 | 42.2% | 30.4% | 27.4% |
| 2006 | 41.6% | 31.8% | 26.6% |
| 2005 | 42.0% | 32.1% | 25.9% |
| 2004 | 41.0% | 32.8% | 26.2% |
| 2003 | 40.5% | 33.5% | 26.1% |
| 2002 | 41.3% | 32.3% | 26.4% |
| 2001 | 40.7% | 32.6% | 26.8% |
| 2000 | 39.1% | 32.9% | 28.1% |
Source: Dr. F. Steb Hipple – ETSU
Retail Sales Growth
The City of Kingsport for the last few years have been telling the citizens how great things are going in Kingsport.
The City of Kingsport is fortunate to have Eastman, the largest employer in Tennessee, located in Kingsport. Having a large employer is great for the revenue that it brings the city, but it also allows the city to become complacent.
In the table below you can compare Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol retail sales growth from years 2000-2008. Johnson City has led the Tri-City area with the best growth with Bristol’s growth coming in second.
It should be pointed out that Kingsport in the last 7 quarters has only had two quarters that have been positive growth when you compare the same quarter against the same quarter the previous year. The two positive retail sales growth quarters can be attributed to new store openings. While it may look like it good growth, one needs to keep in mind that this is incremental growth. The real challenge will be whether Kingsport can keep up this growth given the unemployment situation in Kingsport and another real question is how much money can you get the citizens to give up in a bad economy?
Bristol’s growth mostly started in year 2004 and then took a nose dive in 2008. Most of that growth could be attributed to Exit 7 stores, but the Exit 7 stores have taken a beating and many have closed.
Kingsport was fat and happy with Eastman and Sam’s Club. But when Sam’s Club decided they would close and move to Johnson City and Bristol, then Kingsport had negative growth in the year 2007.
One can say that Kingsport has had growth, so what’s the big deal. Read more on this below.
The retail sales data is from the following link. Tri-Cities Retail Sales Report 
Using the Kingsport retail sales dollars and applying the yearly inflation percent tells a different story. Note the “% Growth after Inflation” column below in orange tells a different story. The year 2003 had a positive growth of 2.53% after inflation was applied.
One can say that the retail sales for Kingsport in 2001 actually meant more for the city in buying power than the current retail sales numbers.
The graph below needs no explaining and one can see that Kingsport is not as progressive as we are led to believe.
