"I thought that some businesses were somewhat recession-proof," said Thomas Maddux, president of Towson brokerage KLNB Retail. "I sort of perceived this economy to favor high-value retailers."
But Mark Millman, a retail consultant and CEO of Millman Search Group in Owings Mills, said he was not surprised by the announcement.
Millman, who worked with C-Mart to help it find employees, said he believes the new owners didn't have the retail experience to keep the business running. He said that as a discounter, C-Mart should have done well in a sluggish economy as shoppers looked to "trade down" or buy at bargain prices.
FOR THE RECORD - Harford County retailer C-Mart will close Oct. 18. An article in Monday's newspaper gave an incorrect date.
The Baltimore Sun regrets the error.
"In these economic times, all my clients that are in the discount retail area or the moderate-priced area are doing well," Millman said. "There is no reason this successful operation with heavy market penetration could not have survived."
Shuman disputed that shoppers would come for bargains despite the financial environment.
"As long as we've been in business and despite the great bargains we had, we're not economy-proof," he said.
Shuman said C-Mart has about 30 employees that it would try to help find jobs.
Rechelle "Rocky" Matus, 57, has worked at C-Mart for 19 years. Her son is now the general manager and her daughter also works at the store.
She first started to suspect something was wrong when the company began laying off people during the past year. Her suspicions grew when it began discounting merchandise more heavily than usual.
"This is the only real job I've had," she said. "This is going to be difficult."
Paula Spiker, 54, has worked at C-Mart for 24 years. She has come to know customers by name. She was laid off by C-Mart for three months but recently got her job back.
She's sad that she'll lose it again.
"My mother used to tell me I'd die at C-Mart," she said. "It's like family here."
