Demarcos to Close Casper Store After 30 Years at Eastridge Mall, Quitting Business Sale Starts Thursday

          CASPER, Wyo. – Demarcos, an original tenant in the Eastridge Mall and a local retail landmark for three decades, will close its doors with a quitting business sale that begins for the public on Thursday, owner Dave Marcovitz said today.

          “Mom-and-pop stores can have one bad season and it can take them out. We’ve done a lot of things right for a lot of years, but the fact remains that one bad thing can take you out,” Marcovitz said. “And, that’s what’s happened to us.”

The store’s inventory will be sold off at sharply reduced prices. The store will extend its business hours from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Sundays. The sale will continue until its entire stock of clothing is sold.

Marcovitz said the decision to close the local store was shaped by developments related to his family’s other men’s clothing store, located in Idaho Falls, Idaho, which opened in 1984. He indicated the company’s financial standing was aggravated when the Idaho store was forced to move several times.

“That was our best store and the moves had a drastic effect on customer traffic and revenues. Ultimately, that affected our ability to run the Casper store,” he said.

The company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing earlier in 2011 also led to the closing of its Bozeman store last August.

“We were really just trying to regroup,” he said. “Our strong customer service has kept us in business all these years but it just wasn’t enough when the economy tanked, mall traffic was down horrendously and we were put in a very bad location in Idaho Falls.”

The Marcovitz family has had a long and storied career in the clothing business, beginning with Marcovitz’s father. He was one of the four founders of chain that had outlets throughout the country. At one point in his career, the senior Marcovitz traveled the country to oversee the opening of 85 stores before coming in off the road to spend more time with his family and operate his own stores again.

Dave Marcovitz followed in his father’s footsteps when he began to spend time at his father’s store and working in the backroom as a youngster. By ninth grade, he was serving customers. He began working at the local store after college.

“The mall opened in 1982 and it was the place to be. That’s how we got here,” explained Marcovitz, whose younger brother Rob operates the Idaho store. “Even though we’re a small operation now, we’ve had as many as seven stores. We’ve had some real pricing advantages and manufacturers have treated us well because when you’ve had a big pen like we did when my dad was buying for 100 stores, people remember that. But, things have changed for us and we’re just not able to move forward any longer.”

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