Business Survivability in East St Louis, St. Louis
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in East St Louis is a Convenience Store with a 67.7% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.
Quick Summary
- Survivability Score: the projected chance a business type lasts two or more years at a specific address
- Best business: a Convenience Store in East St Louis (67.7% average survival rate, 85.0% at best locations)
- Town rank: #66 of 69 towns around St. Louis
- Town average: an average Survivability Score of 62.7% across the business types ranked here
- Coverage: This ranking carries one row per business type and neighborhood. Its score is the projected chance of lasting two or more years, averaged across the price points StreetSpring scores separately in the tool (most types have 5). The 10 business types here are base types; the tool offers 500+ business types, counting each type at each of its price points.
- Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data
- Detailed methodology
Last reviewed: October 2026 by Robert Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring
In this article:
- Summary
- Is East St Louis a good place to start a business?
- How to find the best location
- Best businesses to open
- How much money could a business make?
- What businesses should open next?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Summary
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in East St Louis is a Convenience Store with a 67.7% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 85.0% chance; next is an Eye Care Center with a 70.4% chance, followed by a Clothing Store with a 65.1% chance.
Is East St Louis a good place to start a business?
Among the 69 towns StreetSpring ranks around St. Louis, East St Louis ranks #66 for business survivability, with an average 62.7% chance of lasting two or more years.
- At its best addresses in East St Louis, the top-ranked business type scores 17.3 points above its own average in the neighborhood.
- Yet the same categories that score highest in East St Louis can underperform significantly at the wrong address. Location precision within the neighborhood matters as much as choosing the neighborhood itself.
Employment and housing vacancy figures sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.
How can you find the best location to open a business in East St Louis?
StreetSpring's model evaluates every available address in East St Louis for your business type, ranking them by survivability so the best storefront is always identifiable. StreetSpring's 2026 model ranks this area #1 in East St Louis for a Convenience Store:
StreetSpring's 2026 model identifies this area as the highest-survivability location for a Convenience Store in East St Louis. However, individual locations vary widely, and even in lower-scoring neighborhoods there are pockets that perform exceptionally well. The model evaluates hundreds of factors, from primary and secondary competition to forecasted spend, site accessibility, and local market share potential.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in East St Louis?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting two or more years at a good address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Convenience Store | 83.2% |
| 2 | Eye Care Center | 82.4% |
| 3 | Clothing Store | 81.4% |
| 4 | Dentist Office | 81.1% |
| 5 | Dermatology Clinic | 81.1% |
| 6 | Mental Health Clinic | 81.1% |
| 9 | Bar | 79.1% |
| 10 | Dance Club | 78.0% |
| 12 | Cafe | 77.4% |
| 14 | American Restaurant | 77.0% |
Ties at a good address: Dentist Office, Dermatology Clinic and Mental Health Clinic are tied. A tie is a tie: the rank column is the published file's order, which looks at the average and the best address next.
The rank column is the published file's rank within this place; a skipped number is a business type the file ranks here that this list leaves out to keep any one business family from filling it.
Highest Survivability in East St Louis
- #1 Convenience Store: 67.7% on average across East St Louis; best at 85.0%, challenging at 49.0%.
- #2 Opening an Eye Care Center in East St Louis shows 70.4% average survivability. Top locations reach 89.6%; lower-end sites show 56.4%.
- #3 Clothing Store (Ranked #3): 65.1% average in East St Louis. Best-case storefronts: 85.0%. Challenging locations: 49.0%.
- #4 Dentist Office is ranked #4 for top businesses to open in East St Louis: 69.9% chance on average, best at 88.3%, challenging at 56.4%.
- #5 Dermatology Clinic: 69.8% on average across East St Louis; best at 88.3%, challenging at 56.4%.
Strong Performers in East St Louis
- #6 Opening a Psychiatry or Psychology Practice in East St Louis shows 69.7% average survivability. Top locations reach 88.3%; lower-end sites show 56.4%.
- #9 Bar (Ranked #9): 67.4% average in East St Louis. Best-case storefronts: 84.0%. Challenging locations: 48.4%.
- #10 Dance Club is ranked #10 for top businesses to open in East St Louis: 65.6% chance on average, best at 83.8%, challenging at 50.4%.
- #12 Cafe: 65.4% on average across East St Louis; best at 84.0%, challenging at 48.9%.
- #14 Opening an American Restaurant in East St Louis shows 64.2% average survivability. Top locations reach 83.6%; lower-end sites show 48.0%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Convenience Store: See how this compares to other cities →
- Eye Care Center: See how this compares to other cities →
- Clothing Store: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in East St Louis make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, choosing a high-performing site for your concept in East St Louis starts with the Revenue Capture Score, the most important factor in choosing a location: StreetSpring's estimate of the revenue a business can capture at that address.
How StreetSpring calculates location value
- Even within a high-performing neighborhood, the best location varies by business type: StreetSpring scores each combination separately.
- Where you open is a decision you can measure before you sign.
- StreetSpring's Revenue Capture Score, the revenue a business can capture at a specific address, is the factor that matters most when comparing locations.
- Two storefronts on the same street can have different survivability scores: StreetSpring calculates each one individually.
What businesses should open next in East St Louis?
The top businesses to open next in East St Louis:
- Convenience Stores: 67.7% average survival rate, 85.0% at the best address
- Eye Care Centers: 70.4% average survival rate
- Clothing Stores: 65.1% average survival rate
However, individual locations vary widely, and even in lower-scoring neighborhoods there are pockets that perform exceptionally well. StreetSpring's training dataset includes millions of transactions and business lifecycle events. StreetSpring scores 500+ business types: 153 base business types, most of them at 5 price points, which is 569 type-and-price combinations you can choose in the tool. Because market conditions shift constantly, StreetSpring regularly updates every location's survivability score: you can see current scores for available storefronts in East St Louis right now.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the St. Louis Business Survivability Rankings
- See the St. Louis Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Convenience Store survivability across St. Louis neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in East St Louis.
What type of business should you rent your East St Louis storefront to?
If you own commercial space in East St Louis, StreetSpring's 2026 data points to Convenience Stores, Eye Care Centers, and Clothing Stores as the tenant types with the strongest projected longevity at this location.
- Where you open is a decision you can measure before you sign.
- Two storefronts on the same street can have different survivability scores: StreetSpring calculates each one individually. StreetSpring can show you which specific address in your portfolio scores highest for each tenant type.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in St. Louis Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your East St Louis storefront to a Convenience Store?
Yes, StreetSpring's analysis finds that a Convenience Store would be the best type of business to rent your storefront to, with a potential 85.0% chance of lasting more than 2 years; however depending on your location, the chances could drop to a 49.0% chance.
- Two storefronts on the same street can have different survivability scores: StreetSpring calculates each one individually.
What should I consider when opening a business in East St Louis?
StreetSpring's Survivability Score for your East St Louis address is the projected chance a business of your type is still operating two years from now: check it early.
- Revenue Capture Score comes first when comparing locations: it turns local competition and consumer spending into the share of revenue a business can expect to win.
- StreetSpring's in-house models are trained on 570,000+ real business outcomes.
- Check StreetSpring's current survivability data for any address in East St Louis, starting with a free 10-minute trial.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
StreetSpring's AI platform has analyzed thousands of business openings to identify success patterns. Aggregated survivability rankings for St. Louis are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for St. Louis: /resources/data/st-louis-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.