Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

As you can see, it was raining pretty hard, so I did not get very good pictures, but I noticed the For Sale sign on this office building a few weeks ago when I was in the Owens Field area. That's right, Columbia has *two* roads named "Airport Boulevard", something I did not know.

From what I can gather National Distributing Co is a wine wholesaler, which left this building around 2010 for a site off of Bluff Road. They no longer seem to be listed in the phonebook, so I believe they left the Columbia market after that, though they are still in business nationally.

Note the City Roots greenhouse (or whatever you call it, since it is not enclosed) to the right -- I didn't realize this was where they are located.

Since S & S moved out of this Richland Mall slot, nothing has stuck, with both Sadie's and now Jackson's moving on.

In this case we have a move instead of a closing, and JackSon's should now be open at 1213 Sunset Boulevard, which is, of course, the former location of Ms. B's Southern Kitchen and The Southern Skillet.

Man, this wing of the Mall is creepy empty now!

And

I think they want you to go left.

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. BO)

UPDATE 23 January 2017 -- I got by the new location on Sunset last weekend. Apparently they are still not quite open:

This year the annual Brookgreen Gardens Nights of 1000 Candles festival is set up a little differently in that you need to buy your tickets online in advance. This was done to prevent overcrowding and expedite the often rather tedious entrance process. It worked well, but I think they may have perhaps shot themselves a bit in the foot income-wise because it did seem to to reduce the crowd a good bit from previous years. At any rate, I chose 2 December this year, and the night was quite comfortable, not as cold as some years where I could barely feel the camera buttons through the frostbite, nor as warm as one or two years when I didn't need a jacket at all.

There's always a bit that's different or new every year, but this year the changes were fairly modest: I think the only one that really comes to mind is a new field of staked candles on the green space in front of Pegasus. The vintage christmas display did have some new roller coasters on the Lionel display, and they really zipped along!

The festival is running weekends through 18 December, so if you have some spare time, and are in, or can get to, the area, I highly recommend it.

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Well now, despite my taste in music, I'm probably the last person in the world to walk into a surf shop. So when I noticed that WallerBears in Myrtle Beach was closed (sometime after 18 June 2016 according to blog), it was not because I regretted missing the chance to freshen up my water wardrobe, but because I missed the sign, which impressed me enough several years ago that I took quite a few pictures of it:

Taps was for sale a couple of years ago, and I took a picture then in anticipation that I might need it, but of course now that they actually have closed, I can't find it. If you google "taps bar columbia" it will point you to a nice google streetview picture..

At any rate, this little bar was tucked in next to the Big Lots plaza on Two Notch behind Dunkin Donuts and when I was at Big Lots the other day, I noticed that it had been reflagged as R & B Bar & Grill which is rather more '&'s than usual.

The last review I see is from 10 August 2016, so I'm putting the closing as "Summer 2016".

I was driving Taylor towards Huger the other week and noticed a real-estate sign in front of this nice brick warehouse building. My pix are not great, and the place definitely looks better on the Wright Johnston site. I'm not totally sure if this is a closing or a move, but given that that site has not been updated with any new location, I'm pretty sure it's the former. According to the history there, Wright Johnston started as a general men's clothing store in 1937 but later switched to focusing on public safety uniforms only.

This LoopNet listing suggests that the building went on the market in April.

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Well, here is the second of the three Columbia area Bi-Los recently reflagged as Harveys. This one is in Widewater Square at the corner of Broad and Saint Andrews Roads.

I see Harveys has been "trading" since 1924. Not bad for an intangible rabbit.

I noticed the otehr night that Hampton Hill Atletic Club next to Jimmy Johns in Shoppes At Woodhill had closed and been replaced by Stronghold Gym.

A little googling establishes that Hampton Hill went Chapter-11 (debtor in possession) at the end of June 2015. I guess in the end they were not able to reorganize and make a go of it.

Looking at things after writing the above, I think I may be wrong about this being part of Shoppes At Woodhill. It appears that Shoppes At Woodhill is the stores along Garners Ferry and Pellham Drive. The back side with Target, World Market etc appears to have separate signage.

Not long after closing the Forest Drive store, Bi-Lo continues to make changes in the Columbia market. As mentioned by commenter James R, and explained in this State story, three of Columbia's Bi-Lo's are being reflagged as Harveys. That brand is still associated with the chain, but targets a more value-conscious shopper. To me it seems a little awkward to admit your flagship stores aren't value-conscious, but there you go.

This store in High Point On Decker is already fully converted, with a new facade and even a marquee on the High Point street sign tower. Though I could have sworn I drove that stretch very recently without noticing any work.

According to The State, the other two local stores switching over are the one at the top of Saint Andrews Road and the one, which I can't bring to mind at all, on Monticello Road.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)