Have You Ever Wondered About the Word "Mart"?

Mart. As in K-mart, Walmart, MiniMart, so on and so forth. Yeah. I was just pondering the word mart today and it intrigued me greatly. I just realized that it is tacked onto a lot of stores' names but I have otherwise never heard the word used in any other context and definitely never on its own. Being as I can't have a cell phone at work, a quick Google wasn't an option so I was left to speculate wildly on the origins of the word "mart". I speculated all day. ALL DAAAAAAAY. The best my feeble mind could do was to attribute it to a colloquial de-evolution of the work market. Market to mark't to mar't to mart. This totally made sense to me. I'm no etymologist so I'm just doing what I can with the sad bit of brain stuffed between my eardrums. But, guess what? I was fucking wrong.

Archaic? Dammit. I'm wish I was gooder at words. Cha' feel?