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Eckerd Drugs, Dutch Square, 1990s   18 comments

Posted at 6:05 pm in closing

I suppose I shouldn't do two Eckerd Drugs posts so close together, but writing about the one on Taylor Street made me think about the one at Dutch Square, and I already had the pix, so why not?

The Eckerd's at Dutch Square is the only Eckerd's I know of which had a lunch counter. Even at the time Dutch Square was built in the early 70s, drugstore lunch counters were on the way out, but I suppose they figured they had a captive audience and plenty of foot traffic, like an old downtown, plus there was no food court at the time (I believe Chik-Fil-A, Annabelle's and a cafeteria were the only restaurants in the mall).

The layout of this store was a bit unusual. I have taken the pictures catty-cornered because that was the way the store was oriented. You can see that the current tenant, The Dress Barn has an entrance on both the main up-and-down corridor of the mall and on the cross corridor leading to a mall entrance on the Dutch Square Boulevard side of the mall. So did Eckerd's, with the lunch counter being situated crossways such that if you walked in through the main corridor entrance and out through the cross corridor entrance, you would have walked across the whole lunch counter space parallel to the counter.

Between the lunch counter area and the main store proper, there was a silver turnstile which only allowed passage in not out, which I always considered an unfriendly touch, but I suppose it helped with shoplifting since there was no store checkout on the lunch counter side (the store entrance with registers was on the cross-corridor near the mall door).

There was also an Eckerd's in Columbia Mall, and I'm unsure which store packed it in first, but I'm pretty sure the Dutch Square one did not make it out of the 1990s.

UPDATE 10 August 2020: Add map icon, update tags.

Written by ted on February 28th, 2009

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18 Responses to 'Eckerd Drugs, Dutch Square, 1990s'

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  1. As far as food selections at Dutch Square there was also Orange Julius, Morrison's Cafeteria, and Cromers.

    Mike

    28 Feb 09 at 6:12 pm

  2. I had forgotten Orange Julius!

    ted

    28 Feb 09 at 6:17 pm

  3. The Dutch Square Eckerd came first and closed first.

    There were lunch counters at the original 5 Points Eckerds, original Richland Mall Eckerds, and the downtown location.

    Tom

    1 Mar 09 at 7:14 am

  4. There is an Organge Julius/Dairy Queen in Columbiana but it's really small. I don't think they have food just dessert type stuff.

    Mr. Bill

    2 Mar 09 at 10:12 am

  5. Was there a Woolworth's at Dutch Square too? I could swear that when I was a kid in the late 70s/very early 80s that there was a Woolworth's. They also had an area in which you could sit down and eat, but I don't recall it being a lunch counter. It was more of a sectioned off area...all I can remember is the dark wood.

    nicole

    2 Mar 09 at 4:51 pm

  6. There was a Woolworth at Dutch Square. If you were leaving from White's (Belks now) into the hall it was on your right before you got the Hallmark shop. It had a mall entrance and an entrance to the parking lot on the Bush River rd. side.

    Tom

    2 Mar 09 at 5:18 pm

  7. I remember eating at the Main St. Eckerd's -- with the facade that looks like a stone castle -- when I was very young during one of those marathon shopping days with my mom. Here's what it looked like in those days:

    Dennis

    3 Mar 09 at 10:07 am

  8. The Eckerds in the original Richland Mall had a lunch counter, although I think it was smaller than the one at Dutch Square.

    David

    5 Mar 09 at 4:07 pm

  9. Hmm..

    I don't remember that at all. I guess we were going to eat at a lunch counter at Richland Mall, we ate at Woolworth's.

    ted

    5 Mar 09 at 4:29 pm

  10. The Richland Mall Eckerds' counter was at the front of the store. I think it was all stools, no booths.

    ChiefDanGeorge

    5 Mar 09 at 5:29 pm

  11. Was the store at Dutch Square a Woolworth or a Woolco? It seems I remember the Woolco changing to a GEX store.

    Terry Edwards

    6 Mar 09 at 1:11 am

  12. Dutch Square had both actually. The Woolco was more or less where the coat store and the Office Depot are today. The WOolworth was catty-cornered across the lot from that, above White's. Unlike a lot of the stores on the main corridor, it had its own doors to the parking lot.

    ted

    6 Mar 09 at 1:20 am

  13. Dutch Square opened in 1970..I was there when it did. Woolco was a main anchore store with White's and Tapp's. Woolworth's was also in the mall near Radio Shack and White's. The new theatre in Dutch Square sits in the same spot as Tapp's did. The only original store left in DS, is Chik-fil-a..if that's still there. There was also Morrison's, Orange Julius, Pepperidge Farms, Sharpe's some Cigar store and next to it was a hobby store/shop, Waldens, then the other bookstore that's mentioned elswhere in this site, Cromer's..I dont remeber the other places though other than Record Bar.

    Del

    12 Apr 09 at 6:45 pm

  14. I beleive Woolco became Brendles ,,, GEX was on broad river road ...... wow I had forgotten about GEX

    budd

    2 Jun 10 at 1:19 am

  15. If any folks remember St. Andrews Pharmacy , I've learned that the Eckerd that used to be here was what bought their merchandise, etc. after St. Andrews Pharmacy sold out to Eckerd in 1990. I'm not sure how much longer this Eckerd continued in operation.

    Andrew

    12 May 11 at 7:25 pm

  16. I worked at my cousin's Sunglass kiosk here in the summer during high school in the late eighties. It was located approximately where the group of benches are in the first picture down the hallway towards the mall entrance. I would eat the patty melts at Eckerd's all the time since it was so convenient. They were the bomb!.
    The Woolworth's down the hall towards the Barrell of Fun also had a larger diner and soda fountain. I believe it closed before the Eckerd's did.
    There was also a Cromer's peanuts across from the Woolworth's (on the same side as Barrel of Fun) that had a bunch of live circus monkey's on display behind a glass partition along the top of the back wall. They would run back and forth and play. How bizzare a sight that was!

    palmettopanic

    26 May 11 at 2:53 pm

  17. I remember the Eckard's lunch counter too. My mom worked at the salon in White's and whenever I went there on Saturday's to get my hair fixed shed give me money to go pick-up lunch... In fact I believe Eckard's survived the very early 90's... I was in middle school around that time.

    Other Dutch Square eateries that I remember, circa the 1980's and early 90's, which are no longer, include:

    Morrison's (later Picadilly's)
    Cromer's
    Annabelle's
    A hamburger/pizza joint (it was located across from Chickfila in the location where the Sabaro's pizza was located)
    Tiffany's bakery (it was next to the burger joint... I remember the delicate petit fours
    Woolworth (they had several booths... Lots of dark wood paneling)

    Does anyone remember Tapp's (now the movie theater) and Brendell's (now Burlington Coat Factory)?

    Dee Dee

    25 Jan 13 at 3:26 pm

  18. I can remember, as a child, being eye level with the Elves that decorated the mall during the holidays. Each year I would look forward to that trip to the mall when i knew they were there...Remember the fake cotton like snow with the sparkles in it??

    Yes I remember Tapp's well. I remember when Members Only jackets came out and Tapp's had them right at the front of the store.

    Tommy Holston

    27 Jan 13 at 11:50 am

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