Jim Moore Cadillac Inc, 2222 Main Street, 16 September 2009 10 comments
I don't particularly concern myself with "timeliness" here. For one thing, I'm just one guy with a car and a camera -- there's no way I could keep up with everything closing, even if I somehow knew about it. For another thing, I may care more about some place that closed 20 years ago than some other storefront that went under yesterday.
With that said, after commenter Tom mentioned it in Have Your Say and after I saw the story in The State that today was the last day in business for Jim Moore Cadillac, I thought I might as well drive by and get some pictures.
According to The State the dealership is a casualty of GM's ongoing death-spiral restructuring. The story is a bit vague about whether the store was making a go of it otherwise, saying only that sales had been "improving".
I really don't have any mental tags for this dealership at all. We were never a Cadillac family, and the only commercials I recall were for what I presume was a related business, "Moore Hudson Olds", which all had a distinctively overmodulated announcer pretending to be live from their lot. Still it's always sad to see a landmark like this close, and Main street definitely doesn't need another vacant lot.
UPDATE 30 Nov 2010 -- Here's some more pictures taken on a brighter day:
10 Responses to 'Jim Moore Cadillac Inc, 2222 Main Street, 16 September 2009'
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m
17 Sep 09 at 12:45 am
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On WIS TV an unamed employee blamed the street scapping project in front of the dealership for its closing.
Tom
17 Sep 09 at 5:38 am
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I've heard that, but really, who decides not to buy something major like a car (rather than a cup of coffee or something), because its hard to get to the dealership? Doubt they would say, let's buy a Lexus instead...
Dave
17 Sep 09 at 7:13 am
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Wow, this place is a Columbia landmark in the business world, I'm sure this closing is causing shock to others. Save your money everyone......
boi-dan
17 Sep 09 at 8:18 am
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I would think the only thing that has kept them going for the past ten years was sales of Escalades, and big vehicle sales have long since hit the wall.
Jonathan
17 Sep 09 at 8:34 am
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I doubt it was the streetscaping. If you wanted to buy a Caddy, you would have ot drive 25-30 miles out of town to the next dealer. Moore pretty much was facing the headwinds. They were a single-point dealer in a situation where GM wants multiple-lines in one location. In Caddy's case, it wants Caddy-Buick-Hummer-GMC.
Plus, for years, it must have been tough to sell Caddy's because for the good part of 10 years, they were selling uncompetitive products to a rapidly aging customer base.
I predict you'll see either Hampton or Hudson pick up Caddy.
Steve
17 Sep 09 at 10:15 am
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My grandfather was the construction foreman on this place when it was built.
Brian
19 Sep 09 at 9:50 pm
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Looks like this site may be home to a new Walmart.
http://www.thestate.com/2011/12/02/2066130/3-walmarts-in-heart-of-city.html#ixzz1fOAylNsW
tonkatoy
2 Dec 11 at 9:53 am
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In ‘82 I believe, I went with my grandmother when she bought a new Sedan DeVille from Moore Cadillac. I was 11 at the time. On the showroom floor was the coolest car I’d ever seen and it had gulwing doors and they actually let me sit in it! I didn’t know what it was at the time, but have come to realize over the years it was a new Delorean! The Delorean directory website also confirms they were Columbia’s Delorean dealer!
Chris
18 Jun 23 at 7:17 pm
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In 1974, Jim Moore hired the FIRST woman car salesperson in the state! It made history and was featured in the local newspapers along with her photo. That woman was me!! I remember all of the challenges the were put before me, but I was able to face them and successfully performed my job. So grateful for the experience in what was predominantly a man's career!
Jacqueline Etheredge
17 Jul 24 at 12:08 pm
Finally! I am extremely happy to see this place close. They had the absolute worst service department I have ever encountered. They would quote you one price over the phone and when you went to pick up your car, it would be something else. They would be rude all the damn time as well. I wish I remembered the name of that jackass that was always rude to my mother. Good Riddance