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.

Retail experts said that more companies are rethinking their leasing strategies and reducing store openings as a sluggish economy has caused people to spend less money.

"In general, retailers are looking at ways to cut back," said Thomas H. Maddux, president of KLNB Retail, a commercial real estate company in Towson.

Shuman said that the Landover store had met its expectations despite the weak economy, but that the area around the store developed more slowly than anticipated. He said its stores normally do well in slow economic times because people are looking for more bargains.

"We met our expectations there," Shuman said. "However, we can do 20 or 30 times better on the Internet. We're telling people instead of driving to Landover to fight [Interstate] 495 traffic, just log onto your computer."

C-Mart buys its merchandise from insurance company salvage lots, which collect items from stores trying to get rid of damaged goods. It also gets goods from sample sales and liquidations.

Retail experts said the new strategy could be a good one.

"It's smart and forward- thinking," said Mark Millman, president of Millman Search Group, an Owings Mills executive search firm that specializes in retail.

"Time will tell if that's a workable strategy. But it sounds very prudent and very smart to want to open stores hundreds of miles away and see if they have a concept that works nationwide," Millman said. "You won't know until you try it."

andrea.walker@baltsun.com