Marc’s aims for low prices

Cleveland, Ohio-based Marc’s will sell almost anything, provided it can price the item low and turn it quickly. But it won’t sell shrunken heads.


“We went to one customs auction a while ago and bought some artifacts,” said company founder Marc Glassman in a recent YouTube video. “Then we found out we’d bought some real shrunken heads from Peru. We were quite embarrassed.”


Heads aside, Glassman’s eccentric, eclectic retail brainchild is thriving — in part by defying retail norms. In an era of just-in-time logistics, the 60-store Marc’s chain — Glassman also owns five-store Xpect in Connecticut — doesn’t hesitate to buy multi-truckload quantities of deal and closeout merchandise to lock in a low price.


“With 60 stores, we have well over 1 million sq. ft. of warehouse, just to … bring stuff in,” Glassman said. “Some stuff we bring in six to eight months before the season, but if you’re buying closeouts — especially seasonal closeouts — you have to buy when it’s there.”


“We just want to turn products fast at the lowest prices,” Glassman said. “Literally no one in the country marks closeouts as low as we do.”


The discounts extend to the chain’s more than 50 pharmacies, with a $3.99 price point on more than 400 generic drugs and everyday low prices on diabetic supplies, blood-pressure monitors, digital thermometers, reading glasses, dietary supplements and more.