Tumwater’s growth likely can be attributed to its growing retail sector, including a new Walmart store that opened on Littlerock Road in July. Other stores include Costco Wholesale, Fred Meyer and Albertsons. A Walgreens also opened in Tumwater about the same time.
That retail growth resulted in a 3.57 percent boost in overall taxable retail sales in Tumwater, rising to $108.4 million in the third quarter from $104.7 million in the third quarter of 2010, the data show.
Here are the numbers for the county in the same year-over-year period.
• Thurston County: Fell 5.12 percent to $952.2 million from $1 billion.
• Olympia: Fell 7.59 percent to $421.4 million from $456 million.
• Lacey: Fell 2.84 percent to $232.8 million from $239.6 million.
• Yelm: Fell 8.91 percent to $37.3 million from $41 million.
The state Department of Revenue also releases a separate category of taxable retail sales called retail trade, which is considered a better measure of consumer purchases. The data show:
• Thurston County: Fell 2.02 percent to $482.9 million from $492.8 million.
• Olympia: Fell 2.25 percent to $213.9 million from $218.9 million.
• Lacey: Fell 8.04 percent to $139.2 million from $151.3 million.
• Tumwater: Rose 5.45 percent to $58.4 million from $55.4 million.
• Yelm: Fell 1.88 percent to $22.6 million from $23 million.
Revenue does not disclose taxable retail sales for specific businesses, but they will release that data by industry sector. The state overall generated $27.3 billion in taxable retail sales, an increase of 3.2 percent from 2010.
Rolf Boone, rboone@theolympian.com
