Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Charlie's took over fairly seamlessly from Nick's, and has now in its turn yielded to King's Pizza, though the sign changeover is less than finished.

I'm not sure if this is the same King's Pizza which replaced Chickadees on Marshall Street, but it would be an odd coincidence if not.

(Hat tip to commenter David Edwards)

I've noticed Claire Tower at the corner of Senate & Marion Streets from time to time over they years because it stands out as not typical for the area, the section of Senate Street between the State House and Pickens Street which is an area I have always thought of in connection with the old museums and planetarium as well as the State Library.

I did not know that a hair color salon was in the street level of the towers, but it was, and got quite good Yelp reviews.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

Well, this happened sooner than I figured, and this store was completely gone by the time I got around to visiting Columbia Mall.

Of course, it appears to have been a failry small store, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. As you can tell if you click through on the mall directory, Payless was on the lower level just two storefronts down from the former Sears. The storefront to the left of it is also vacant, though I'm not sure what it was.

As a reminder, Payless declared bankruptcy on 14 February 2019 and all the chain's stores have closed or will be closing soon.

I did not know this, but Crazy 8 was part of Gymboree, with the second bankruptcy of that chain taking out these stores as well.

According to Wikipedia:

Crazy 8 was started in August 2007. It features lower priced clothing and is Gymboree's direct competitor for The Children's Place and Old Navy.

In the event, I guess that didn't work out too well.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Here's a vacant restaurant space in the Flight Deck complex. I was not familiar with this place, but the description google gives is

Vibrant hangout featuring contemporary Latin dishes, handcrafted cocktails & a rooftop bar.

Doing some more googling around, it appears that the original Arkos changed ownership some time ago, and at closing the place was officially Stella's At Arkos. In general, the reviews seem to have dropped after the changeover.

(Hat tip to commenter Brian)

I've featured this little walk-up restaurant on Two Notch at Covenant under, I believe, four different names in two different posts.

Apparently the last incarnation was The Picnic Table.

Judging from the new lettering on the marquee, it was apparently trying to become an ABC store, but ran, at least for now, into a zoning snag of some sort.

Well, I would rather not take pictures through the passenger side window just to keep the camera semi-dry, but those are the conditions that prevail lately..

This Bi-Lo is on Emanuel Church Road in West Columbia in a spot where I am fairly sure I have never been before. In fact, I drove out there last week, headed down that branch of Emanuel Chruch Road, decided that things were petering out and turned around and went the other way.

This store is part of the latest round of Bi-Lo & Harveys closings, and presumably will be gone by the end of the month as these closeouts don't usually take too long.

UPDATE 10 May 2021 -- Now open as a Food Lion:

According to The State, today was the last day for Gwen Rawls in Trenholm Plaza. Not being a woman or in need of Italian shoes, I was only vaguely aware of this place, but it is in the same wing of the plaza that 32 Degrees was (though about as far away from Rosso as it is possible to get).

It does seem odd to have three storefronts close fairly close together in time like that, but on the other hand, plaza management continues to bring in new businesses like BLD Diner. We'll have to see what happens.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Payless filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 18 February 2019, and will be closing all of its stores, which includes three locations here in the Midlands.

This store is in East Forest Plaza at the intersection of Forest Drive and I-77. I don't have it in these shots, but the Fallas in the same wing of storefronts closed late last year as well. I have put March 2019 as the closing date, but the linked article indicates some stores may last as long as May.

I have never been in this store, but I have bought shoes at Payless several times, and they seemed reasonable in both price and quality.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

Chocolate bakery Chocolate Nirvana had the misfortune to move to a building on Gills Creek just before the Great Flood of October 2015. With their building effectively destroyed, they had no choice but to move operations to commercial kitchen for rent DER Kitchen, where they stayed until January of this year.

Their Facebook Page doesn't rule out future ventures, but for now, all the equipment has been sold.

(Hat tip to commenter michael)