By Andrea K. Walker , Sun reporter|March 25, 2008
Closeout retailer C-Mart said yesterday that it will shut its year-old Landover store to focus on expanding its Web business and becoming national rather than regional in focus.
C-Mart's opening of the Landover store, in an old Sam's Club near FedEx Field, marked the first expansion for the company, which started in an old five-and-dime in Harford County in the 1970s. Its no-frills stores and handwritten advertisements have helped it develop a cult following.
The owners at the time said they wanted to be closer to shoppers in Prince George's County and Washington who for years had made the trek to its Joppa store.
But in July, C-Mart was bought by online liquidator The Asset Store LLC. The new owners expressed an intent to modernize the discounter, which still used pencil and paper to price merchandise and record inventory, by introducing barcoding and other technology.
It also promised to pump money into its Web business, which the company wants to make its primary business. It will launch a Web site, www. cmart.com, April 28 and offer free shipping on all items as an incentive. A liquidation sale of the Landover store's stock is to begin Friday.
The new owners plan to open stores in other parts of the country but decided that the Landover store was too close to the store in Joppa, said Dan Shuman, chief executive officer of The Asset Store.
Any new stores will act as distribution centers for the expanded Web business, Shuman said. More strategic store locations would be Las Vegas, Nev., where stores could also act as distribution centers for the West Coast, or Miami, which could serve the South.
"It doesn't make strategic sense to have two stores that are an hour apart if someone in D.C. can go online and buy that same item," Shuman said.
He acknowledged that the company's strategy has changed. When The Asset Store bought the company in July, it said the Internet would allow C-Mart to bid on larger purchases without worrying about whether the huge volume of inventory would sell at just two stores, he said.
At the time, Shuman said C-Mart had to pass on larger deals - an entire department store chain going out of business, for example - because it knew it could not sell the merchandise fast enough in this region.
In a news release yesterday, the company said splitting inventory between two stores did not leave enough for Internet sales.
