Tumbleweeds 17 comments
I went to Sears at Columbia Mall on Wednesday to look for something and decided to take the closing-cam and walk the mall afterwards. There are so many vacant storefronts that the place almost feels like Inlet Square Mall now. I thought about taking pictures, but then decided there was no point because I didn’t even know what these places had been. In high school, I probably went several times a week, but now it’s once every six months or so. Is the mall in trouble? Let me put it to you this way — the Dollar Store is gone, and there are kiosks selling flea-market type merchandise…
I did take a few pictures, and I really like the first one. It is almost an Edward Hopper-esque scene of isolation.
17 Responses to 'Tumbleweeds'
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Tumbleweeds'.
-
joel
30 Jul 10 at 1:25 am
-
I am not sure what is going on, but with all the resurrection and influx of stores coming to Forest Acres, yet nothing in Richland Mall makes make think something is going on.
ChiefDanGeorge
30 Jul 10 at 6:06 am
-
I don’t know what will come of Columbia Mall…only time will tell but I’ve read that CBL Associates (the commerical real estate firm that leases said mall) is known for not letting properties slip on their watch so we’ll simply have to wait and see as to what they have in mind for this mall…
as an aside, am I the only person that prefers Columbia Mall to Columbia Place??
Andrew
30 Jul 10 at 4:19 pm
-
Just looking at these pictures..seems like Columbia Mall Place or Place Mall or Columbia Mall is a DEAD ZONE..it’s hey day was back in the 70’s to early 80’s.. they need to just tear it all down again. There USED to be some great stores there like Drakes Duck in, Lowery Organ, Tiffany Bakery, Orange Julius, Annabells and Morrison’s just to name a few.. but those days are L O N G gone.. too bad.
Del
30 Jul 10 at 10:19 pm
-
Columbia Place isn’t done yet. I keep in contact with the management. More stores are to come to fill the empty spots. The economy and tight credit kept a lot of projects from starting. Give them a little while. DTLR is opening upstairs in a vacant store front.
Rashaad Egister
31 Jul 10 at 1:08 am
-
@ Andrew. I don’t know anyone who calls it Columbia Place
Tom
31 Jul 10 at 8:50 am
-
I think Lowery’s Organs pulled out because they had a bad problem with shoplifting.
badger
31 Jul 10 at 11:01 am
-
This is just the way it is. The demographics have changed and there is no longer the same base to support the old-line stores. Chris Rock has a little piece he does on the shifting fortunes of shopping malls. It has been many years since I have set foot in Columbia Mall (mostly since I knew people who got mugged inside and was present for one shooting as far back as 1990).
It’s a shame, but the world changes.
Larry
31 Jul 10 at 2:08 pm
-
I believe there are several contributing factors at play: Bad economy (biggest imho), difficulty in obtaining loans, shifting demographics. Factor in that malls are losing their prominence as shopping destinations and here we are.
Not every town/location is right for a mall, yet most towns over a certain size get them. Recessions show which malls/locations are the best. The weak die off while the strong continue to survive.Jeff
1 Aug 10 at 11:30 am
-
Here’s appropiate mood music for this listing by the Sons of the Pioneers:
Tom
2 Aug 10 at 5:33 am
-
Da Hood Comes In — da people go out -There is no Problem at Trenholm Plaza – Sandhills is next — just look at any Friday or Saturday Night there — On the way out Please turn the lights out and Pull your pants up! Thank you!
discjo
19 Aug 10 at 8:19 pm
-
discjo, you are right on the money. The reputation of this mall was set in the early 90’s and beyond. It became the mall of violence, crime, and gangs. They were way too soft on cracking down on these little thugs. By the time they addressed these issues, it was too late. Rebound could happen, but it will be many years before people forget the gunshots, etc. that went on here.
JC
19 Aug 10 at 11:55 pm
-
Another thing that has hurt this mall is that the demographic area around it is getting grayer and the newest subdivisions near the mall were built in the 1960s-1970s. This is not the kind of things most retailors and developers look for when chosing a new location.
Tom
20 Aug 10 at 8:43 am
-
Back in it’s heyday..this Mall used to be super crowded just like Dutch Square, and Cola. Mall had LeisureTime Toys, some pet store, Orange Julius, Lowery Organs, Tiffany’s Bakery amoung other great places..but then it just died, and the demographics and cliente changed. Now it’s a DEAD ZONE Mall..they should tear this place down along with Dutch Square. It’s outlived it’s usefulness.
Del
20 Aug 10 at 1:09 pm
-
[...] realize Columbia Place was this dead. See attached photos: Tumbleweeds at Columbia Closings At what point does Macy's pull the plug on this location and build a store at [...]
-
I have a theory, based on years and years of completely non-scientific observation:
It takes a population of approximately 250,000 people to support one mall, give or take. So if you have two malls, you’re going to need 500,000 people. And so on and so forth.
Having lived in a number of cities over the years, all with populations ranging between 250,000 and 5,000,000, it seems that there are always one or two malls above the 250,000 to 1 ratio, and invariably, one or two malls close, or turn into dead malls.
I know Columbia used to have a whole lot of malls (Decker, Dutch Square, the one on Garner’s Ferry where Target now is, Columbia Mall, Richland Mall, Columbiana). We’re down to Columbiana, with Dutch Square and Richland effectively empty. Sandhills is the modern faux-mall, made to look like an outdoor shopping center, but we all know it’s a mall. I know they’re having problems too, with a lot of vacancies and anti-social behavior in the evenings.
Matthew
30 Aug 10 at 9:10 am
-
I was one of the kiddie mallrats that hung out at Aladdin’s Castle in the early 80’s, and throughout high school, Columbia Mall was THE PLACE. I loved hanging out there, getting pizza, meeting friends at the arcade, acting cool in that great grotto that was beneath Annabelle’s.
But things changed at the end of 1988.
Discjo is correct – The ‘hood came in. I remember when they had to implement a police station right across from the arcade, due to all the shootings. At one point, we started calling it “Cambodia Mall”. I was there the day that someone shot out the huge glass window at the back entrance; The whole mall went under lockdown.
I worked in a few of the shops during the early 90’s (Fast Wok, a shoe repair store who’s name escapes me, and Cutlery World) and watched the mall decline even further.
I think the problem with Columbia Mal is that it never matured. It never grew out of the baby-deb boutique style setting it started in, when places like Jeans West (remember them?) were there.
Sad to see the those mid-passage kiosks now…In the 80’s there would have been FAR too much pedestrian traffic to have them.
4 Sep 10 at 9:04 pm
The mall is dying. There is no doubt about it. It reminds me of the last years of the Northridge Mall in Brown Deer, WI. It went from fairly active to dead within 3 years, mostly because of the concern of crime. Much of the concern was racial but there were enough events that led to the departure of its main clientele. I do see the resurrection of Richland Mall and the Eastland Mall type end of Columbia Mall.