Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This Sprint cellular store is, or was, in the same little strip on Forest Drive more or less across from the movies that also recently lost Ela's European Market & Deli. I have a bit of a soft spot for Sprint, though I've never used them for anything other than a phonecard, because back in the day they used to do some interesting programming projects. My employer worked R&D contracts with them a number of times, and that led to me spending a good many weeks in Overland Park Kansas, which aside from maybe Seoul, is the coldest place I have ever been. I remember one project there where when I drove past a bank on the way to Sprint in the morning, it was -5F and when I drove back to the hotel after work it was +5F. I was also in the room once when the then president of Sprint took a call from Donald Trump who was checking to see if Sprint could handle the call-in volume for his Miss Universe pageant. At some point after that, Sprint cut out most of their R&D and became an off-the-rack operation though I doubt that had much to do with why this store closed..

UPDATE 1 Oct 2010 -- This Sprint store (and Ela's Deli next door) are now part of a 24-hour fitness center.

This Food Lion in Airport Square at the intersection of Airport Boulevard and The Charleston Highway, was open as recently as 3 March 2009 when they posted a want ad for a sales manager.

I posted a number of closings in this general area lately, though not all of them actually happened lately. On the whole I think its fair to say the business climate is not good there. I'm not super familiar with the local stores, but I'm drawing a blank on a grocery store closer to here than the Bi-Lo in Parkland Plaza, which is a fair drive down Knox Abbott. I guess there's the Wal-Mart and Bi-Lo on US-1, but that's about the same distance.

UPDATE 4 Feb 2011 -- It's now a "Save A Lot" grocery store. I went in the one in Aiken once and didn't see any brands I had heard of..

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 7 Feb 2011: Updated the post title with a more precise closing date based on the comments.

UPDATE 13 January 2021: Update tags, add map icon.

Well, I suppose it's a bit of a cheat to do a closing for an event that will repeat this weekend, but hey, it's a closing for the 11 December viewing date only.

If you can make it to the coast this weekend (17th, 18th or 19th) the show is well worth your time. The gardens are lit as you see, and there are singers, bagpipers, food and drink.

I took my tripod with me this year, set the aperture to f2.0, the ISO to 80 and let the camera set whatever exposure it liked. Often it worked quite well, other times not so much (these are some of the ones I think did OK). The long exposures mean you can see blurs for people walking by in some pictures. It was supposed to be much warmer on the 12th than the 11th, but it was also supposed to rain, so I went out on the colder night. It wasn't too bad except when I was trying to feel the little buttons on the camera and could not find them at all in some cases!

It's all pictures after the jump.

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While going out towards Sumter to cut a tree recently, I noticed that the Ole Timey Meat Market on Garners Ferry Road (opposite the new Walgreens) is gone.

I have to admit that I've never been in an actual "butcher shop" -- we always got our meat from the supermarket growing up and inasmuch as I have any concept of a butcher, it would be Alice's boyfriend on The Brady Bunch.

I believe there is still an Ole Timey Meat Market open on Saint Andrews Road.

UPDATE 31 December 2009: It turns out this location has not closed but has moved to Rosewood Drive (see the comments).

UPDATE 16 August 2017 -- Now a pawn shop:

Here's another recession casualty, one of several recent ones on Fernandina Road. I don't know much about boats or RVs, but I know it takes a lot of money to run either, even though gas prices have come down a little.

It appears the site and contents were auctioned on 21 November 2009:

BUSINESS LIQUIDATION AUCTION

SATURDAY - NOVEMBER 21, 2009 - 9:00 AM

COMPLETE LIQUIDATION OF TRUCKS, TRACTORS, SHOP EQUIPMENT, BOATING & RV PARTS & SUPPLIES, OFFICE FURNITURE, & RELATED ITEMS

(I would not expect that link to work more than a few months).

The site appears to be fairly large and it will be interesting to see what goes in there next.

This old-style walk-up soft-serve parlor was in Bishopville, on the north side of town near the high school stadium. I would pass by it several times a year on the way to family events, and always meant to stop some time or other, but the way it always worked out is that I was not alone, running late, or both.

I first noticed that it seemed to be closed on my way to Thanksgiving 2008, and finally got around to taking some pictures in March of 2009. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I had no qualms about heading out on I-20 with a camera and some good music. According to their sign, the place had been there more than 50 years, which I have to say is a pretyt good run.

Going by this last month for Thanksgiving, I saw that now all the signage is down, and the building is just sitting there empty with no indication of what it was.

UPDATE: Looks like there's a Facebook Group..

UPDATE 23 December 2011 -- Well, as these 24 November 2011 (Thanksgiving) pix show, the building is gone now.

UPDATE 24 December 2011 -- Oops! Building is still there, but boarded up. The pix were of a lot with a gas station destroyed by Hugo, so I've taken them out. I'll try to get the real thing next time I'm over there. (Didn't have my camera ready today..)

I always enjoyed pottery as a kid. There was just something about the feel and even smell of wet clay, and making something real rather than just a representation like a drawing or painting. In fact, the only time I was on Mr. Knozit, I was making a pot in the background while one of the Richland County Threnholm Park pottery teachers explained the county classes for kids in the foreground. Of course I never got actually good at it or even progressed up to the potters wheel, but it was fun.

Apparently Two Peas In A Pot on Saint Andrews Road was one of those "you paint / we fire" places a number of which, like build your own teddy-bear places, sprung up several years ago. I never went to one, but I can easily see how it would be a fun evening.

Their web site says they closed Thanksgiving, and it looks like the space is currently available. For some reason getting my oil changed took an hour longer than it should have and I got to the place after sunset. The parking lot was quite a bit busier than I expected -- apparently everybody suddenly had the desire to order take-out pizza..

(Hat tip to commenter Jonathan)

I don't know when this Burger King went under, but it may have never come back from that time in the 90s when the local franchisee (who owned all the Columbia BKs) got in a dispute with corporate and all Columbia Burger Kings closed. Eventually new ownership was found and a number of them came back (with special commercials featuring "Blues Doctor" Drink Small..), but several never did.

I'm not sure when the follow-on business: TitleMax/CheckMax closed, but I believe it was this year.

I find it rather interesting that the street number displayed on the building is clearly 1402, but google is adamant that the real number is 1400.

That's right. You know those 2010 Columbia Closings wall calendars I've been hawking the last few weeks? Well, none left the printing center last week.

Of course, you can fix that by ordering yours today!

(Oldtimers will recognize where I lifted the 'none left' gag from..)

Adriana's was a landmark Five Points coffee house that had apparently been open for 25 years. Eva in the Free Times has the story of how the end came, and it seems to have been a number of factors.

I believe that I only stopped in at Adriana's once, and got an initial "not for me" impression that I never spent enough time in Five Points to correct. As I recall, it was a hot summer day, and I was walking around the area as I do maybe once or twice a year (actually more than that now that I'm taking pictures for the blog..) and I stopped in for an iced cappuccino, which was served to me sweetened. My theory is that you should never put sugar in someone's coffee unless they ask for it (or unless you're ordering some frou-frou drink which explicitly lists it).

Be that as it may, they survived the coming of Starbucks just around the corner for a number of years, which is no mean feat. The storefront is currently empty, or was when I took these pictures a few weeks ago and I have not heard of anything new going into the space.