Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Although I did not know it, Chocolate Monkey is a small family owned chain of candy shops. As their Facebook explains, the owners have moved to Tennessee to run the stores there, and keeping up with the lone South Carolina store from there was just a bridge too far.

That's a good looking strawberry!

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

Well, here's a bit of synchronicity. Friday 24 August 2018 was the first time I had ever happened to be in West Columbia, near JackSon's Southern Kitchen at (my) lunch time, so I decided I would finally check the place out.

Pulling in, it seemed to be dark, and there was a sign taped to the door, so I was going to get out and look at it, but then I noticed that the lunch hours during the week were only until 2:30, and it was 3:00, so I figured I had just missed it and drove on. I got home that evening, and people were already posting in Have Your Say that the place had closed down due to legal woes.

Here's the story from WIS (For some reason, they seem to have trimmed most of the text that was originally there).

You may recall that JackSon's started in Richland Mall and moved to Sunset Boulevard in 2016

UPDATE 4 May 2021 -- As reported by commenter Barbara reports, this storefront is undergoing a major upfit. Unfortunately, the construction sign is singularly unhelpful in telling what is to come:

Also adding a map icon.

Looking at the company website, it appears that Shoe Dept. is the correct name for this store front with no The and no full spelling of Department. It also appears to be a brand of Shoe Show, Inc. which also operates stores under that name and as Burlington Shoes.

Commenter ED suggests that the adjacent Dollar Tree will be expanding into this space, and indeed this may already has happened, as I have not looked back in there since May.

Shoe Dept. appears to still have a store in the Lexington area at 1792 South Lake Drive.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

The company is still around on Huger Street, having moved there around 2011, but their old building on Garners Ferry Road has now been demolishe as these (rather dark) pictures show. I find it somewhat interesting that my February 1997 phonebook gives the address as 7230 Sumter Highway, while more recent ones use Garners Ferry Road. I guess it's a sign of the metro area moving eastward (and in fact, I remember when anything past this was the boonies).

(Hat tips to commenter Frank Mancuso for the heads up, and commenter Rick for clarifying the location).

Back in the days of Speedy McGreedy & Gilbert Giddyup, Hardees was our goto place on road trips because unlike McDonalds or Burger King, they had "chewy" ice in all their stores. That changed sometime in the 70s or 80s, and with them adding chicken, and with me hating the smell of Chicken, I don't think I have eaten there after breakfast in 30 years or so.

This store was co-located with a convenience store/gas station at the I-20/US-378 interchange, and you can still get your burger on there, as both McDonald's and Chili's are still at this exit.

I like the glass blocks, btw.

(Hat tip to commenter Steve)

UPDATE 19 June 2021: Updating tags and adding map icon.

If you look closely, you can see the Walgreens directly across the street at 423 West Main Street that put paid to this Rite Aid location.

I'm not sure how the other locations are doing it, but it appears this one closed for two days (13 & 14 June) to get ready for a liquidation sale on 15 June. I'm marking that as the closing date, though I suppose it could last several days.

UPDATE 3 November 2020 -- This building was razed some time ago, and construction on a new Murphy's is now well advanced:

Also adding map icon.

UPDATE 6 March 2021 -- Now open as a Murphy's Express:

This former church & retail building is on the south-west corner of Garners Ferry Road & Horrell Hill Road. Judging from the date Google attaches to the LoopNet listing it has been vacant for somewhat over a year. You can see it in operation as Jars Of Clay in Google Streetview. (The Church is currently meeting at the Hampton Inn at I-77.).

This property is across the street from the former Somewhere In Time / Perkin' Beans location.

UPDATE 4 October 2022 -- Something is going on at this site:

Also updating tags and adding map icon.

As predicted before, this Garners Ferry Rite Aid has closed due to its closeness to the Walgreens at 7801 Garners Ferry. For a big square building, I think it looks rather nice because of all the brick. There is growth in the area, but I'm not sure I can think of anything that might go into the building. Perhaps a medical office or Family Dollar type store as I have seen both in old pharmacy locations.

UPDATE 30 January 2019 -- As reported in the comments, this is now a Family Dollar:

This one is kind of odd. After what was apparently a somewhat prolonged build, the proposed Fresh Market on Sunset Boulevard in Lexingtion was boarded up, giving rise to several local media stories, like this one from The State, that struck a reassuring tone, indicating that the store was still expected to open this Spring (ie: now). Conspicious, however, in the spin of those stories was a very tepid quote from Fresh Market corporate, which said essentially: No Comment.

Then last month The State reported that this store will *not* open in 2018 at all:

The company plans to focus on “improving core operations” at current stores, “so it has decided not to open any previously announced new stores for 2018,” according to a statement issued by the company. “Our focus remains on strengthening and growing our in-store operations, guest service program, merchandising selections, future offerings and, of course, our team members, as well as planning and executing new store openings after 2018.”

This strikes me as an extraordinary statement that has a blood-in-the-water feel to it. If the company had opened the stores it had been building and then put a hold on expansion, nobody would have said anything, but in these hard times for grocers, pausing (forever?) the opening of already (mostly) built locations sends a message quite apart from the bland words. I hope I'm wrong as I quite like the Fresh Market, but it doesn't sound good.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 13 April 2019: The Free Times reports that Fresh Market has abandoned the site and that instead a Publix Greenwise Market will be coming instead.

I've also changed the post title status to Cancelled and added a map icon.

UPDATE 25 August 2020: Changed the street address from "5328 Sunset Boulevard" to "5336 Sunset Boulevard Suite A", to match the buisness address used by Greenwise Market, which opened in this building in December 2019 and closed in August 2020. Also updated the map icon to use the better address.

UPDATE 18 June 2022: It looks like Prisma Health will be going into this site. See here.

Here's another vacant Cricket Wireless storefront, this one in Topspin Plaza in Lexington.

I noticed as I was getting the pictures that Topspin Plaza actually has two marquees and street addresses. I'm not sure if they are separate developments or not, but the other is at 5341 Sunset Boulevard:

(Hat tip to commenter James R)