S-Mart, 436 Blossom Street: Fall 2023 8 comments
I was driving by this weekend, and noticed that the S-Mart convenience store & gas station on the Southwest corner of Blossom & Huger was closed. I didn't notice until I was sitting at the light, so I didn't have a chance to park and look around, but from the pile of dirt and scuff marks, it looks like they have already taken out the tanks.
Normally I would expect something to go into this high-traffic spot quickly, but I proved to be wrong about the catty-cornered lot with the former Columbia Antique Mall / Chic Antique & Co., which closed in 2016. That struck me as a prime site, but now six years later, the space is still vacant.
8 Responses to 'S-Mart, 436 Blossom Street: Fall 2023'
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Larry
3 Oct 23 at 7:07 am
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I think this might have originally been an Aamoc station.
@Larry, I am surprised that the USC athletic department didn't try to get this lad. It would have been a good spot for parking for the baseball stadium.
Tom
3 Oct 23 at 9:55 am
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I don't know if Amaco was the original station, but I do remember going there quite often in the late 90s. This was so strange, I drive by it every day, and one day it was just closed. I had a feeling it would eventually happen, but it seemed overnight.
Mr. Bill
6 Oct 23 at 11:35 am
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At the risk of sounding like I'm yelling at kids to get off my lawn, am I the only human who's tired of Columbia (or Cayce or West Columbia) continually succumbing to the University's bottomless appetite for "more"??
I can hear the argument from the University now about "growth" and "improvement". My response would be the University doesn't need to take over the city. Do with what you have. Apparently, the University doesn't want to be in the "dorm" business anymore (heaven forbid), hence all the student housing (rolls eyes) that continues to spread.
Not terribly long ago, I was a member at Brickhouse Gym. It's a real deal, old school, serious gym, with amazing equipment. And, locally owned. The fact they are being displaced in the name of "more" for the University bothers me...
Lone Wolf
7 Oct 23 at 9:51 am
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The thing that bothers me about this constant University expansion is that they aren't being cognizant as to their need for parking. Just since I gradated from there they've taken out 2 parking lots for more buildings. I remember my dad mentioning to a cousin of his a number of years ago that it didn't make sense how the University could build Founders Park they way they did with a lack of parking.
I remember Workshop theater having to doing a capital campaign so they cound find a home to make room for the new USC law school. I'm not 100% sure where they are now but I know it was demolished to make way for the new law school....sounds like the Brickhouse Gym Lone Wolf speaks of is falling into the same situation as Workshop Theater did ca. 2007-11
Another concern I've wrestled with is this: I would like to see our passenger train options grow and I'm concerned about the University boxing in the current Amtrak station we have (currently we have the Silver Star that runs from New York Penn Station that passes through during the overnight hours...Southbound departs around 1:40 AM to Denmark, SC (DNK), Savannah (SAV) and then 18 cities from Jacksonville (JAX) to Miami (MIA) while the Northbound departs around 4:09 AM to New York Penn Station (NYP) to Camden (CAM), Hamlet, NC (HAM), Cary (CYN), Raleigh (RGH), Petersburg, VA (PTB), Richmond Staples Mill (RVR), Alexandria, VA (ALX), Washington, DC (WAS) and then several other Northeast Corridor cities until it stops at NYP. Frankly I wish we had a day train option to Richmond and just better passenger train service in general and freight train industry issues aside I'm concerned about the University looking to swallow the land the Amtrak station sits on (and being unsure where it could go).
Andrew
7 Oct 23 at 12:12 pm
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No, Lone Wolf, you are not. I wonder if USC is not partially to blame for all of the new construction in Cayce, West Columbia, Springdale, Lexington, Red Bank...and it looks like Pelion and Gilbert are next. Maybe people are tired of the focus on USC and "young professionals" (is that code for "USC graduates"?).
I quit one Cayce/West Columbia gym because of students constantly gathering at certain machines and using their phones together.
Robin
7 Oct 23 at 6:13 pm
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Parking *is* a problem and one that all the PTB (Powers that Be) in all our cities desperately need to address. But, growth first, amirite??
My larger, overriding concern is the University's continual need for "more". They're running off locally owned businesses, they claim to care about, in their need for "more". This financial cash-cow of "student housing" is spreading like a social disease. Cayce, West Columbia, and Columbia *all* existed long before the mighty and wonderful University came to be. When is enough? At what point do we strike a balance between the wants of the almighty University and wonderful, smaller places it is taking over?
As some of get older (myself included), we don't want to live with students. Students and non-students are at two different points in our lives. I remember being a college kid and I'm a very different person now.
Buddha on a bicycle, don't get me started about goofballs at the gym on their phones. Perhaps, if they'd actually lift some weights instead of posing for "the 'gram" they'd be able to squeeze themselves into those skinny jeans. And, *why* when The Universitah gives you a membership to the multi-million dollar Strom facility are kids not going there??? Because they have to walk. Perish the thought...
Lone Wolf
7 Oct 23 at 8:27 pm
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I didn't like many college students when I was a college student!
Robin
9 Oct 23 at 12:41 pm
There’s a large student apartment complex planned for this corner. Brick house gym and the rental truck place will be demolished to make way for it as well. I noticed a Brick House location over by SCETV on George Rogers Blvd at a USC game earlier this year, not sure if they’ve already relocated or not.