Bel Air Mars Closing Doors This Week

Mars Supermarket will be no more in Bel Air.

Four of the grocer’s 17 stores will be closing by May due to ”ever-increasing competition,” Mars CEO Chris D’Anna said in a statement obtained by Supermarket News.

The Bel Air location will be the first to close, according to Supermarket News.

The store on Baltimore Pike will shutter on Sunday, Jan. 25, The Aegis reported.

Mars will be departing after just a few years. It opened in the Bel Air Plaza on Nov. 16, 2011, according to Mars.

The Aberdeen, Pasadena and Woodlawn Mars stores will close by May 1, The Aegis reported.

Other locations—in Arbutus, Carney, Cockeysville, Dundalk (where there are two stores), Edgewood, Ellicott City, Essex, Loch Raven, Lutherville-Timonium, Perry Hall, Reisterstown and Rosedale—are to remain open.

In March 2014, Mars shut down its east Baltimore distribution center and contracted with a Connecticut-based distributor. It was a move the CEO said would enable Mars to “remain competitive with large regional and national chains” and respond to the “ever-increasing competition in the grocery business,” according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

Pictured, the Bel Air Mars is located at 599 Baltimore Pike. Photo Credit: Mars.