Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I'm pretty sure that this Pizza Hut was the same operation which used to be in a little plaza further towards Dentsville more or less across from Columbia Mall. That whole set of buildings was razed and I can't quite recall what was built there afterwards.

Anyway, that was a classic-era Pizza Hut and I had enjoyable meals there many times. I never ate in the new location, and pretty much gave up on Pizza Hut years ago. The owners of the chain just destroyed everything that made it enjoyable and ran it into the ground. I think that owners who knew what they were doing could bring back the red cups, the distinctive buildings, the salad bar, the table cloths, in-house cooking and make a good return on retro stores.

Oh well, that rant aside, I can say that this location closed on the 16th, and has yet to be cleared out. You can read about it in The State and the Post & Courier.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Dollar Tree moved in here sometime in 2011, a year or two after Eckerd's closed shop.

It's a decent enough location, with stop-light access to Saint Andrews Road & Broad River Road, but the area has struggled in recent years, and the catty-cornered CVS closed last year.

It's a good sized building and still looks to be in reasonable shape, but I don't have high hopes for a new tenant. Perhaps a gym?

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

The signage on one side of this corner lot at Covenant & Beltline still says C & J, but I believe that is the result of the latest tenant, A Golden Automotive stripping their branding from that wall when they closed and that the two businesses were not the same.

Google reviews suggest Golden was open into Fall of 2025, but as you can see (if you squint) the building has now been ruled unsafe by the city, and the place is vacant.

The Sub Station II slot in the Columbiana food court has already been, well, not boarded-up, but the curtain based equivalent -- That's it behind the black backdrop left of Dragon's Breath.

I've never really warmed to Substation II -- I've tried the Cedar Terrace location several times, and have never been too impressed -- I would rather have Jimmy Johns or Subway amongst the sub shops.

According to The State, this location opened in 2024, so it did not have an especially long run here.

(Hat tip to commenter Dustin)

I don't have much to say about this other than this is another GameStop caught in the general downsizing. This one is on Killian Road in the newish strip-mall by the Walmart, just to the West of the I-77 interchange.

(Hat tip to commenter Lavender)

Friends House (no apostrophe apparently) was the follow-on in this Publix plaza suite to Chen's.

Commenter James R notes that the rent on this place went up and the owners opted not to renew. Currently the storefront is empty.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

This former Dairy Queen had been the Eggroll Station for 35 years before it closed in December due to the this, the adjacent Capitol Square shopping center, and the old Al's Upstairs location being bought for redevelopment.

I never ate at this place, which is connected to Eggroll Station / Eggroll Chen on Crowson, but my sister reported it as very good.

You can read about the closure and redevelopment in The State, The Post & Courier or Westmetro News.

As for the redevlopment, it sounds very ambitious, but one property I conspicuously did not see mentioned was House Of Raeford, which, if the breeze is right, can put quite a kibosh on activities in the area.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

This building, on Broad River Road just North of I-20, has featured here several times, first as an Applebee's and most recently as Tha River. After that, it started to set up as a Blaney's, a local wing chain with several Midlands locations.

It may be too soon to apply the "Never Opened" rubric, but given that the Fire Marshall considers this a vacant building, and given that the posted door notice is from October 2025 with a re-inspection mooted for December 2025 and that it is still posted, I would say that things don't look promising.

Francesca's has filed Chapter 11 and is closing all its stores and ceasing operation. You can read about it here. This particular location is in Columbiana Centre, not too far from Barnes & Noble, and has already started its closing sale. I don't know how long that will last, but they look to have some pretty steep discounts already.

This closing was reported by commenter Tom who mentions they also have a Sandhill location, but if they do, I have been unable to find anything about it and it does not appear to be on their site map. There was also a Trenholm Plaza location, but in the event it turns out that closed already several years ago, and I did not even notice.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

Apparently Scrub Trendz sold out to Spartanburg based The Scrub Shop in 2023, maintaining this Seven Oaks shop with the original signage until recently when they moved to 2101 Main Street (at Elmwood).

This storefront, which apparently consists of three suites, is now up for new tenants.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)