Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This Aaron's on US-387 in Lexington just west of the US-1/US-378 split listed in the phonebook as Aaron's Furniture Rental, though clearly judging from the wall blazons, they also did appliances. Given that the South Lake Drive operation already existed, I think this is more a consolidation than a relocation. Basically they have just folded this branch's operations into that one's.

(Hat tip to commenter James)

The United States Geological Survey is reporting a 4.1 magnitude earthquake happened 7 miles northwest of Edgefield Friday night around 10:23 p.m..

I thought the possums in the attic had called in reinforcements..

I'm not sure what this building was originally, but it sits just to the right of Heartbreakers and behind the Shell Station on Bush River Road.

I do seem to recall that Apple Bottom, or perhaps the previous club in this building, was somehow connected with the former Burger Time in Dutch Square.

Interestingly, the only place I could actually see in the windows seems to have sort of an Asian theme going on. [UPDATE, see below]

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it's not 1973, and it's not 1979 (for one thing I have power!), but it is one for the record books.

Come to think of it, another way it's unlike those two is that I have absolutely no urge to go outside and play.

UPDATE 13 February 8:30 -- And now it's snowing again..

The new location:

Yoghut moved into the old Quiznos location next to Barnes & Nobel in 2011 and stayed there until B&N closed.

Now they are in the process of moving across the plaza to a suite next to the Outback Steakhouse. I guess I can understand that their foot traffic in the old location would be greatly reduced with the closure of B&N, but it seems to me that the last thing people coming out of Outback are interested in is more food..

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I liked Punjabi Dhaba, though I haven't been able to make it over there for several months. The restaurant is part of the old Howard Johnson motel across from Wal-Mart near the intersection of Bush River Road and I-26. I started going there after Delhi Palace moved from Broad River Road, and found I liked it better.

Here is The State story on the fire, though it is very brief. When I stopped by there on Sunday 9 February, the place still smelled stronly of smoke and burnt wood. While I certainly hope to see them re-open, it's hard to see sinking much money into this old building. There are two vacant restaurants further up the road, but of course those buildings aren't in great shape either.

UPDATE 16 April 2014 -- As commenter Andrew reports, looks like demolition is starting (pix from 13 April, it may be done by now):

UPDATE 9 May 2014 -- Well, the building is gone, and I have removed the "temporary" tag from the post title:

Well, if you've been reading Have Your Say, then you know commenter joelc scooped The State by a week on the news that Books-A-Million in Trenholm Plaza is closing.

I've spent many an hour in the Trenholm Plaza store. When I was younger, and the store was open until 11pm, I would often grab a late-night latte there as I browsed the shelves and magazine racks. In more recent years, I've found a good night's sleep more and more important, and the store has stopped opening so late anyway.

Of course in recent years, I've also done most of my reading on a Kindle and have had less and less need for an actual, physical, bookstore. I still look for comic strip collections, which work better printed, and technical books, but it often seems that given my technical needs, and humor tastes, I'm more likely to find those online as well. I'm definitely not alone in this, as evidenced by the closings of the Harbison Books-A-Million, the Harbison Barnes & Noble, The Happy Bookseller and the list goes on..

The State article suggests that rather than the chain keeping the space and re-working it as they did on Harbison, new clothing retailers will be moving in.

For all us Millionaire's Club members,

there's still Sandhill, and Lexington.

For now.

(Hat tip to commenter joelc)

UPDATE 4 March 2014 -- Here are some pix from back during the snow of the place with the Store Closing sign deployed:

8 March 2014:

14 March 2014:

16 March 2014:

29 March 2014:

UPDATE 31 March 2014: Added 14 March 2014 pix, 16 March 2014 & 29 March 2014 pix.

UPDATE 1 October 2014: Added 8 March 2014 pix.

T J's was in the Boozer Shopping Center right next to Columbia Center of Immigration and had a name non-specific enough that I'm not sure what they sold.

Judging from the sign on the door, they may be coming back as Thrifty Values.

OK, let's enlarge that one and turn it around..

I had never been back in this little office/industiral plaza off of North Main/Wilson at the I-20 interchange. It's a bit hard to figure out how to get down in there at first, but once you do, the place is fairly non-descript, though it does seem to have a pretty high vacancy rate. I can't find an actual street address, but the over all complex is 20/21 Business Center.

From what I can tell, Spirax Sarco is a steam technology company that moved to SC from Allentown after a union dispute back in 1998. Then in 2011, they bought a building in Blythewood and are now located there.