Longtime shoppers like me and my sisters worried, though, when the store moved to its larger Joppatowne digs and focused more on selling discounted high-end furniture. Would the store still be the same? We worried some more when we started noticing that those finds we used to get were creeping up in price. Sure, you could get an IT-purse, but it still cost hundreds of dollars.  Then we worried even more when the store was sold and its new owners decided to open a second store in Prince George's County. Would the new store get the better finds?

When the store announced it was building a site online, we feared even more. How could a quirky store like C-Mart, filled with all kinds of odds and ends and one-of-a kind merchandise and thousands of items, put that gigantic inventory online? Would they take pictures of every little thing and price every little item? How could that odd charm translate itself to the Web?

Turns out it couldn't, as we feared, despite bold promises on its Web site when it closed the Landover store earlier this year:

“This is not a hoax or a gimmick. The rumors you have been hearing our [sic] true. We’re CLOSING our LANDOVER STORE in preparation for our biggest project EVER . . . ONLINE SHOPPING AT CMART.COM Coming 4/28!! (that’s right . . . NEXT MONTH!)

“MAJOR retailers have been closing their doors due to a weak economy or diminishing sales, BUT, our motive is the exact opposite.

“Over the past eight months, C-Mart has undergone substantial upgrades and modernizations under the direction of its new co-owners, Brad and Dan. During the 2007 acquisition, Bondroff and Shuman were relatively vocal of their intent to not only make the C-Mart buying process more efficient and enhance customer service but to undoubtedly expand the reach of the C-Mart brand to a national level. In order to carry out this goal it was obvious that C-Mart WAS GOING TO NEED TO ESTABLISH ITSELF AS AN E-COMMERCE RETAILER!”

We're still wondering what happened? C-Mart's Web site doesn't offer much insight into the problems it encountered. Sure, blame the economy. But for years, C-Mart managed to do well offering deep discounts on designer wear. What changed? There's an old and brief statement saying, "DOWN but NOT OUT" that promises to come back with a bigger and better Web site in the fall.

But now we know that's not to be and that our old, beloved C-Mart got knocked out long ago by a change in business plan that just never seemed to work for a store that was already doing just fine the way it was.