CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A thrift chain that has spent two decades growing across East Tennessee is setting up shop in the Scenic City. KARM Stores, based in Knoxville, plans to open its first Chattanooga store in the Hixson Pike area, roughly a 10-minute drive from downtown.
There is no street address yet. The company is still working out the final lease, and renovations on the building will come after that, so no firm opening day has been set. Josh Lively, who leads marketing and communications for KARM Stores, has said the company is aiming for early 2027 and could open sooner if the work goes well.
Shoppers and donors will get a first look before the store itself is ready. A KARM donation center on Hixson Pike is in the last stretch of renovation and is expected to open within the next couple of weeks.
The new store is likely to add more than 20 jobs. Company-wide, KARM employs somewhere between 600 and 650 people depending on the season, and it now runs more than 25 shops in a territory that stretches from Athens to Morristown.
The stores are the retail arm of Knox Area Rescue Ministries, and all of their profits go back to that ministry. The money pays for meals, job training, life skills classes and health care for people in need in East Tennessee. For bulky furniture or other items too big to carry into a store, the nonprofit offers donation pickup at no charge.
Chattanooga already has a busy secondhand market, and Lively has said the company sees the city as another large Tennessee market with a strong thrift culture, a good fit for its next push beyond the Knoxville area.
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