Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

So here's the Latest Good Idea From the Folks Who Brought You Stadium Lighting:

A major facelift is being planned for Columbia’s South Main Street that would narrow it from four to two lanes and eliminate all on-street parking.

I'll admit that when this came up in Have Your Say, I couldn't even remember that there was a Save a Lot on Saint Andrews Road. In point of fact it hasn't been there that long, replacing the Kroger some time in 2015. That seems curious to me, as though they badly misread the market or something changed. The KJ's down the road might be direct competition, but that was planned before this store went in, and despite the Bi-Lo to Harvey's change at the top of the hill, I still don't see that location as direct competition to a discounter like Sav a Lot. Commenter Andrew references the new Wal Mart Neighboorhood Market, but that seems a good way from here..

At any rate, it appears the store will close on 22 June.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney).

Well, often in these situations, the "closed for remodeling" rubric is more a vague hope than a description of something that will actually happen. However, Wet Willie's finally did come back, so who knows? The external indications are mixed: this location is gone from the company website, but the signage has not been taken down.

At any rate The Tilted Kilt replaced Huller's German restaurant in this location, opening in early 2014. The chain is a "breastaurant" concept like Hooters but with a faux Scottish flair. I only went to this location once, when I was looking for something open late that wasn't just burgers. They had some sort of mashed potato pie thing on the menu that looked like it would be a) Pretty good & b) Hard to mess up. Either one or the other of those assumptions turned out to be wrong, though the scenery was nice.

(Hat tip to commenter Zach)

UPDATE 20 June 2017: Removed the "(temporary?)" notation from the post title based on the comments and this State article

UPDATE 17 August 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments, this place is setting up to be Willie Sue's:

Also adding map icon.

Some time late in 1965, or early in 1966 I was watching daytime TV. I never went to kindergarten, and hadn't started first grade yet, so at the time I was home all day with my mother. In general, she liked for me to be doing something, prefably outside, rather than watching TV, but it would have been cold out so I was watching game shows. Let's Make a Deal was always my favorite because of all the doors and the booby prizes, but I think this one was The Match Game. At any rate, it had a semi-celebrity panel playing the game, not that I knew who any of them were, and during the course of the game each of them got to casually drop a little promo for whatever their latest project was.

There was one guy who said he was going to star in a show called Batman which was premiering soon. There was some back and forth joking with the other panelists to the effect "Oh, so, you can turn into a bat, or what?", and that really stuck with me. I really wanted to see a show about a guy who could turn into a bat!

That little PR squib was, to the best of my memory, all I knew about "Batman". I knew who "Superman" was, of course, but "Batman" was a complete unknown quantity. I couldn't read at the time, so I didn't know comic books, and while I knew comic strips in the paper, "Batman" was not one of them. But I made sure my parents knew I wanted to see this new show when it came on, and was fully prepared for a show about a man who could turn into a bat. (I didn't realize how far beyond what a 1960s TV show could do an effect like that would be..). What I got, of course, was something completely different -- and thrilling: The Neil Hefti theme song, the animated opening sequence and the most noble and steely-eyed hero on televison. I was hooked from minute one, and I had *no* idea I was watching a comedy. I hung on Batman's noble words, thrilled at his (and Robin's) daring escapes and chilled at the colorful cast of scenery chewing villans...

The man on that game show, and behind the mask was, of course Adam West. An up and coming journeyman actor before the show, forever typecast after the show. In time he learned to get beyond the fact that the big roles never came again, and to embrace being "Adam West: Batman". He played the Gray Ghost on the classic animated Batman series, and recently returned for one more outing behind the (animated) mask last year in Return of the Caped Crusaders.

Away from the spotlights, he apparently lived a full and happy life. With that, and making the world a bit more four-colored and brighter, who can quarrel?

Not sure exactly when Allstar closed, but Columbiafoodienews says that Papa Gios was prepping this spot to open on 16 December 2016, so Allstar must have been closed for probably a month or more by then. I'm just going to say "Fall 2016".

I do love me some pizza, but I never made it to this spot. Lexington is a good drive, and if it were normal hours, and I were going that far, I would probably get some Parthenon style pizza at Pizzeria Opa or it it were later, Uno.

Interestingly, Papa Gios seems to have all its locations in Orlando and the Midlands, which is a fairly unusual distribution.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I've always thought it odd that there were two Bank of America locations on Two Notch so close to each other. This one is on the west side of O'Neil Court, and the other is at 7405 on the east side of O'Neil Court (and in the Lowe's parking lot).

Apparently they have recently regularized the situation by closing this one down, with the exception of ATM service. It's not clear to me if two ATMs will remain on the lot. The day I noticed that the drive-through lanes were closed and took these pictures, something was going on at the "back" ATM and access to its drive-up lane was blocked though the machine appeared to be running.

The lot itself is fairly big, and opens on both Two Notch and O'Neil Court -- I can't imagine that they plan to leave it vacant with just ATM(s) for long. I expect they will put it on the market at some point.

UPDATE 13 March 2022 -- Apparently this building has now been sold. I'm not sure if that includes the ATM on the O'Neil Court side:

Also adding map icon.

UPDATE 12 June 2023 -- As mentioned in the comments, this building has now been razed.

30 March 2023:

12 June 2023:

UPDATE 13 June 2024 -- Now (almost) open a a Checkers:

Commenter Justin noted a while back this this River Drive conenience store has closed. I was not aware of the place, but it is actually fairly well placed as I cannot think of another one nearby. The next closest would be the one at the top of the hill on the other side of the river I believe.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 19 January 2018 -- Here's a bit of a further back view:

UPDATE 28 September 2021 -- The addresses don't completely match,3810 vs 3806, but I'm pretty sure this spot is now a CK Mart:

Also adding map icon for 3810.

Back on 20 April, I decided to finally see "Logan" before it left first-run theaters. As it happened, I was at the beach, and as also often happens, the Myrtle Beach theaters had their own notions of what was "current". In the end, I had to run to Conway to catch the show.

As I overplanned the transit-time, I had a few minutes to drive around the shopping area near the theater, and the Radio Shack above caught my eye. I knew they had had a second bankruptcy by then, so I wasn't surprised to see it closing, but the chain kind of slipped out of my mind again after that, and I didn't really have any idea how things were proceding. 'Not well', is the answer:

Over the Memorial Day weekend, RadioShack—which filed for bankruptcy twice in two years—closed over 1,000 stores, leaving just 70 corporate locations and 500 dealer stores in operation across the U.S. Throughout the weekend, the consumer electronics retailer announced a liquidation sale that played out on social media. Social media represents a new plot twist for America's dying retailers: How do you toast a brand's final days when the world is watching?

RadioShack opted for unadulterated bleakness. The company's social media handle on Twitter shared photos that depicted the sale of store fixtures, $25 grab bags stuffed with items pieced at $5 apiece, and deeply discounted printers. Here are some tweets that highlighted the carnage.

Take that in for a second. I don't know if it's more surprising that they still had over 1000 stores, or that they closed over 1000 stores in a weekend, but it's impressive in its own grim way.

The dealer stores will probably make do; I think they are mostly small market independant electronics stores that basically use the Radio Shack affiliation to signal that they're a step up from Uncle Bob's convenience store that has phone chargers. I don't see what the point of a corporate store is at all with just 70 though.

Patrick Stewart deserves a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, by the way.