A shopper leaves a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Gilbert, Ariz., in this 2008 file photo.There's the one on Little Debbie Parkway in Ooltewah and the one on Highway 153 in Hixson.
Both are inconvenient, says Carolyn Wilson.
She hates driving Hunter Road, so she typically opts to shop in Hixson.
"Normally, it probably takes about 15 to 20 minutes," she said. "That's without all the Hixson traffic, and that's pretty bad most evenings."
Wal-Mart, however, has noticed the Harrison gap and plans to fill it with it a 155,000-square-foot Supercenter.
Regional Planning Agency documents show plans to build the Supercenter on a 21.5-acre property on the south side of the intersection of Highway 58 and North Hickory Valley Road.
This, even as Wal-Mart quietly and steadily makes plans to open a slew of smaller-footprint, grocery-only Neighborhood Markets in the greater Chattanooga area.
There are at least seven Neighborhood Markets in the works, plus one that just opened in Fort Oglethorpe.
There are also 16 full-size Wal-Mart stores within a 30-mile radius around Chattanooga.
Market experts can't say why the world's largest retailer is taking such an aggressive investment strategy in Chattanooga, other than plain retail economics.
"The more stores and the greater percentage of sales they can get in a certain area, the better return they can get on their fixed costs," said Jon Springer, retail editor at Supermarket News.
Wal-Mart has slowed its rollout of Supercenters around the country as it ramps up production of Neighborhood Markets. Supercenters aren't making as much money as they did 10 or 20 years ago, and Neighborhood Markets are increasingly popular with consumers.
But Springer said the mega-retailer hasn't forsaken the Supercenter model, and Wal-Mart officials aren't necessarily bucking the trend by debuting new ones even now.
"They're still profitable retail vehicles, and Wal-Mart is still very much focused on growing," he said.
Springer said retailers generally like to have a presence in areas where the population is growing.
And as Volkswagen prepares to begin production on a new SUV at its 3,200-employee Chattanooga plant, Wal-Mart may be looking to piggyback on the car maker and its Enterprise South neighbors, including Amazon.com.
Russell Gilbert, the city councilman who represents Harrison, says Highway 58 is a growing residential area that has lagged commercially in recent years.
He said Harrison prospered decades ago, but attention shifted to Hixson, then Gunbarrel Road, then downtown, and commercial developers never came back to Harrison.
"All of a sudden, [growth] stopped when I was a kid," he said.
So Gilbert thinks Highway 58 is ripe for something like this, especially since the Highway 58 Kmart closed in 2012.
"To be honest with you, I think this is the last frontier for growth in Chattanooga," he said. "There's so much land down [Highway] 58."
He said Harrison has a large population that has lived in the area for a long time, and a recent influx of middle- to upper-class families.
According to Census Bureau data, there were more than 3,300 housing units in Harrison in 2010 and the average household income was $55,000, which is $11,000 more than the state average.
Developers are seeking rezoning for the Harrison Supercenter, and they're asking that 5.5 acres of land on the proposed tract be annexed into the city.
Gilbert said he believes the city will approve the annexation, and that the rezoning will go through at Monday's planning commission meeting.
"Because it's growth," he said. "It's positive growth."
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.