Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This storefront is in that faux Tudor little strip of Harbision around the Bower Parkway intersection. Portrait Innovations listed in the 2018 phonebook, so I'm pegging the closing as this year. From what I can see Portrait Innovations is a national photography chain, and there is still apparently a store at Sandhill.

That was pretty quick work. The pictures of the store in operation were taken on 9 October 2018, and by 16 October, the signage is down and the store is empty save for a few mattresses stacked against the front wall -- No closing sale, no bargains, just gone.

This is the second vacancy in the still fairly new Jackson Square (which replaced, most recently, Liquids Gentlemen's Club). Earlier in the year, the adjacent Tijuana Flats closed, and has yet to be replaced.

UPDATE 15 November 2021 -- Now a Club Champion gym:

UPDATE 13 December 2021 -- Here's the other side of the Club Champion:

Well, in a surprise to noone, Sears has declared bankruptcy:

Sears Holdings Corp. filed early Monday for bankruptcy protection from creditors, marking the collapse of a company that dominated American retailing for much of the 20th century.

The retailer, which sought chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., reached a deal with its lenders that will allow the 125-year-old company to keep hundreds of its stores open for now.

As part of the deal, Sears is expected to close at least 150 stores immediately, according to people familiar with the matter. Currently, the company operates roughly 700 Sears and Kmart stores. It employs about 70,000 people.

Of course Sears has basically already exited the Midlands, but there are still a couple of Kmart stores hanging on in the area.

Anyway, it's a far cry from the days of "As Solid As Sears", and it didn't really have to happen. If Walmart can do it, and Target can do it, that, at the least, proves it's possible. And one of the ironies is that probably about the time Amazon started to spin up, all the people at Sears who knew how to run a catalog operation were retiring..

I kind of like the folklore quality of identifying liquor stores with red dots. I think it was more a legal thing, at least at one time, than were the barber pole, the pawnbroker's trio of balls and the medical cross & caduceus, but it falls in that category nonetheless. Anyway, this store, not far from the antique mall, is listed in the 2018 phonebook, so it either closed this year, or after listings closed last year.

Apart from all the conspiracy theories, apparently the ubiquitious Mattress Firm just thought that Nothing succeeds like excess. It's not always a terrible business model. For instance, if you see two Circle K stores located across from each other, the thought is that This is a busy intersection, and *somebody* is going to put a gas station across from us to catch cars going the other way -- it might as well be *us*.

It can be more problematic for something like mattresses, which aren't a convenience purchase, or as the Houston Chronicle puts it:

Why store-on-every-corner strategy didn’t work for Mattress Firm:

Mattress Firm, as it gobbled up rivals and tripled its store count to more than 3,300 locations, seemed to have a storefront on every block — sometimes two storefronts. In its quest to become the biggest player in the $15 billion U.S. bedding industry, it pursued a strategy of clustering shops close together with the aim of crowding out competition.

It didn’t work.

The Houston retailer said as much when it filed for bankruptcy Friday, acknowledging that it operates too many stores and plans to shutter as many as 700 locations as it tries to get out from under $3.2 billion in debt through its Chapter 11 filing, which allows companies to restructure operations and finances while protecting them from creditors.

“I think they’re humbled,” said Seth Basham, an analyst with Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities. “They grew far too fast with ambitions to be a national retailer.”

The Wall Street Journal has some more details including that the crisis is a world wide one in some sense:

The bankruptcy marks a rapid fall for the once high-flying bedding retailer and Steinhoff, the South Africa-based retail conglomerate that has been called “Africa’s IKEA.” Steinhoff, whose purchase of Mattress Firm marked its entry into the U.S. market, has been caught up in an accounting scandal that erupted in December. Its creditors, who hold billions of dollars of the company’s bonds, agreed to suspend all payments on its debt for three years. Steinhoff is expected to launch a debt restructuring for its European business in the U.K. later this month.

Commenter Andrew supplies a link that lists the South Carolina stores affected (so far). For the record, they are:

This particular store is next to Jimmy Johns, more or less near the top of the Harbison hill going towards Saint Andrews Road. As of yet, they have not posted any closing signage.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 7 November 2018 -- Here you can see (poorly) that the store has been cleaned out:

Well, I find this a bit surprising: I go by Boozer Shopping Center fairly frequently, but somehow I entirely missed a new restaurant in there until it had already closed.

It appears that down-home/soul-food joint Hungry Moments started sometime around April 2016, and lasted at least until March of 2017, when the last Yelp review appears. The reviews are mixed, but it seems if you hit it at the right time, you could get a good old-fashioned Southern meal.

I also apparently missed the previous tenant in this slot, Generations Bakery & Catering.

UPDATE 20 October 2018: Added picture of Boozer marquee.

Commenter James R notes the sale of Jim Hudson Hyundai on Greystone to Peacock Hyundai as of June.

This is just down from the old Stivers location, but unlike that closing, will not be taking a new car dealership off Greystone, which, I think, used to have quite a few more than it does now.

I do find it a little interesting in that Peacock is a bit of an unusual name for a dealership, which tend to have a human name (usually a man's) associated with the brand.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

Well, the door sign is true and misleading at the same time.

I have to say I was not really aware of either incarnation of The Garden Bistro, but The Free Times says the closing was announced on 12 September 2018.

I've never been quite sure what to make of this odd little strip of retail and services on Assembly. I don't think I've ever been inside any of them. I do have it in my mind one of the former tenants was big in bringing down the Blue Laws.

(Hat tip to commenter Payne)

I have been to this strip fairly often for either Moe's or Bruegger's, and I do recall seeing Vacumart here, though I had no reason to visit that store. Commenter Tom mentions that the owner retired early as it was just getting too hard for a local store to compete with Amazon.

I can see that, but about all I can say about vacuum cleaners is If you have an Electrolux, you can pass it down to your children. If you have children..

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)