C-Mart Branches Out

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Thursday, February 1, 2007

Attention, C-Mart shoppers: Starting Feb. 17, you won't have to make the 55-mile trip from Washington to Joppatowne, Md., to poke around a no-frills warehouse full of furniture and fashion at discount prices.

A local branch of the 36-year-old operation is opening in a former Sam's Club several long passes from FedEx Field at 8511 Landover Rd. in Landover. Last week, Keith Silberg, a co-owner, was supervising the unwrapping of a typical assortment of C-Mart merchandise, including an Alexa Hampton drop-leaf Hickory Chair side table (originally $2,700 selling for $810), a Sherle Wagner marble toilet worthy of Caesar ($25,000 selling for $1,900), a French country game table by Maitland-Smith ($2,480 for $794) and a LaBarge pendant lamp ($945 for $276).

Silberg is continuing the offbeat retailing tradition that has attracted a cultlike following since his family opened the first C-Mart north of Baltimore in 1971, peddling wares salvaged from store liquidations, sample sales and insurance claims. In many of Silberg's buys, insurers may have declared contents of an entire department or specialty store a loss, based on only a minor leak or fire.

Jura Koncius