Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I first used The Key Shop some years ago when I was having an issue with getting a key cut for one of my cars that actually worked without having to jiggle it all around. I think that by that point all I had was a copy of a copy of a copy and the standard hardware store copy process was just barely working. Anyway, they fixed me up in a few minutes with a perfectly working key.

I was a bit alarmed when I saw the building empty a while ago, but it turns out they moved to a better location at 1815 Barnwell Street and when I recently bought a used car which came with only a valet key, they were able to look at it and cut a full master with no problem so I can now actually unlock the trunk.

Here is a State story on the move.

I am not sure what's next for this little building, it's got good visibility, but the Park Street side parking is a bear.

I was out driving US-1 through Batesburg-Leesville the other day, something I have not done in years, possibly not since I started this blog. Anyway, I noticed this old Winn-Dixe location, which is now a Roses Express, which I suppose designates a smaller Roses, though I don't believe I have seen one before.

Winn-Dixie left the state in 2005 after a bankruptcy, so I will use that as the closing date here.

I noticed last time I drove by Very's to see if they were doing dine-in yet that the thrift store in the same Two Notch plaza was gone. Judging by their Facebook, they were open into at least December of last year. I used to stop into places like this all the time to look for old books and records, but both are digital for me these days, so I never did stop here. The full name seems to have been Refreshed & Restored (R&R) Ministries Thrift Store, so I guess they were associated with a church.

Commenter Larry points out that this furniture store in Cross Hill Market is "moving" to Greenville, though it sounds mostly like they are shipping the inventory to an already existing store there. According to their Facebook, tomorrow (21 April) will be their last day.

I think of Cross Hill Market as still a fairly new place, but there has already been a good bit of turnover there.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

When I took these pictures, I was thinking this spot was PC Corner, but it turned out I had already done a closing on that, and anyway, it was two suites over. This looks to have been The Flower Botique, which has apparently moved to 8816 Two Notch. It turns out I did have a picture of that from a different closing, it's just not a very good one:

(Click through and look all the way to the left..)

I thought about going to Norton a few times, but they weren't open on Saturday, and Best Buy was, so that was the deciding factor there. I was a bit surprised to notice that there was a closing sign on the door (which I thought I took a picture of) saying they were shutting down temporarily due to COVID-19, but when I did a google search, I found that the building went on the market in October.

As far as I know the Broad River Road location is still open.

UPDATE 22 March 2021 -- Here are the pictures of the door sign I mentioned:

I can't find out anything about this Sandhill Stride Rite shoe location except that it is no longer listed on the company's website, although I did learn that Sperry is a Stride Rite brand, which I had not known before.

Since I can find no other information, I'm going to list the closing date as 2020 under the assumption they might have been victims of the lockdowns.

I can't find anything in the local media about this Jos A. Banks location in Sandhill, but going by the google reviews, it closed sometime around August of 2020. The chain has had some difficulty lately, but the parent company, which also owns Mens Warehouse has Just exited Chapter 11, so perhaps things are on the upswing.

There are two remaining Banks in the Midlands, one in Harbison, and one at Trenholm Plaza.

I thought I was done with Bi-Lo closings, but as commenter Andrew reminded me, I had missed this one in West Columbia just East of I-26. I can only recall stopping at this store once when it was Bi-Lo. I was driving through late at night and for some reason got a hankering for cinnamon rolls, the kind that come in the little aluminum trays with the white frosting on top. I don't think I've bought any since then, but they did hit the spot.

I get the impression that KJ's is using the IGA infrastructure to build their own brand. This one, unlike the one near the flea market, doesn't even have the IGA logo on the front, though I did see IGA products on the shelves. I didn't buy anything, but it looked fine inside, probably a notch above Food Lion.

The plaza where this store is located is unusual in that it doesn't seem to have a name.

Well, this may be the final Bi-Lo closing, unless I go farther afield. This store on US-378 started out as a Piggly Wiggly more than twenty years ago, and now with the sale of Bi-Lo has come full circle. It's nice to see a new Pig open, as that chain has been having its own problems. It seems that the crew who wanted to stay on were able to, which is nice. ColaDaily has the story.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)