Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I have been meaning to get these pictures up for a while since work at the Hotel Trundle storefront ended up exposing the old marquee for a while.

When I was growing up, the Western Auto at Trenholm Plaza more or less where the Lululemon is now was my goto place for hobby batteries. In particular they had gigantic 1.5 volt carbon-zinc cells with screw tip connectors. I forget whatall I did, but electro-magnets, oddball things with flashlight bulbs and glowplugs figured into it. The stores were ubiquitous for a good while then the whole chain went into decline. I kind of remember that the last one open locally was in the Two Notch Kmart building.

I don't actually remember this location at all from back in the day. Of course we would not have driven downtown given that Trenholm Plaza was much more convenient, but I would have thought I would have some memory of seeing it, which I don't.

According to Wikipedia Western Auto was bought by Sears, which worked out as you would expect, and Sears sold most of it to Advance Auto Parts with the chain basically going defunct by 2003.

Lita's Treats moved to this location from the Dutch Square food court in 2021. On 8 May a car drove into their storefront, closing them down temporarily. Luckily neither anyone in the store nor the dirver was hurt, which definitely was not a given. According to Lita's Facebook page, the damage is more extensive than they originally thought, so it's not clear when they will reopen, though they plan to. In the meantime, they have a store on Killian Road.

WIS has the story.

(Hat tip to commenter Dennis)

Hard Bean was the follow-up in this building to Maurice's Piggy Park which closed in November of 2023.

Hard Bean was here in the summer of 2024 until April of this year when they announced they were moving to Lexington. Apparently the new address will be 129 Cromer Road, which appears to be on the other side of Sunset from the Chick-Fil-A (though back a bit further).

I don't know the reasons for the move of course, but I've always thought this storefront and the next door one are hard to get in and out of, plus of course, there is a Dunkin with coffee right there as well.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

Unlike the Dollar Tree fire(s) on Beltline, this one was pretty scary as it happened at 5:30 in the afternoon while the store was still open, and all the staff as well as customers were inside. In the event everyone made it out safely, thank goodness!

The fire sounds odd as it started in an asile and moved into the attic, but at least in the stories I have seen, the fire department has not found an actual cause for it.

You can read about it at The State or on WLTX.

As you can see, work has started on remediating the store.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Well, I am happy to report that the best sandwiches on the Strand are available again. After a fire closed Dagwood's in Surfside back in January, the place underwent a several month rehabilitation, opening again last week as reported on their Facebook.

Here is a WMBF story on the fire. According to the chain's site, this building has been a Dagwood's since 2006. I am pretty sure I recall it being a Shoney's before that, and where we ate Thanksgiving dinner one odd-off year when all our relatives were away.

I look forward to a BLT+ the next time I am on the Strand!

I didn't get out to take a closer look as it was raining pretty hard, but commenter JamesR says this little antique and rummage shop on US-1 has closed due to the owner's retirement.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

As reported by commenter Gypsie, Brakes 4 Less has moved down (or up) the street to 603-B Columbia Avenue which was apparently a Precision Tune.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

This may be flagged as a move, and hopefully the employees have relocated, but the Augusta Road location referenced in the sign has been open for quite a while, so this is actually more of a closing.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

Tee'd Up was the follow-on operation in this Lake Murray adjacent building to Shooey Malone's. Judging by the farewell note on the place's Facebook, the owner had another avenue open up, and a chance to sell the property as well.

Although the note is a bit vague, something else if obviously coming, and work has already started on the building for whatever it is.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

I noticed the other day that the carwash at the corner of Percival & Brackenridge is gone, and all the bays on the building are now enclosed in rollup doors. There doesn't seem to be any name on the place now, but perhaps a new auto-related operation is coming.