Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This little storefront in the Food Lion plaza between Greystone and Brevard, was a UPS Store. This review says that they were having problems for a while, and I wonder if that suggests that the copier which appears to still be in there was unfixable.

I believe that a contract Post Office opened fairly recently at Boozer Shopping Center, so there are still shipping resources in the general area.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 9 September 2013 -- It's now Peking Wok II:

Well, this one is ripped from the headlines -- It seems that on the morning of Thursday 8 March 2012, somebody set fire to Club Crush (aka Crush Gentlemens Club) on River Drive just down from a defunct Cash / Title shop and the old A&P.

OK, I'm jumping the gun on the theory that it was arson, but given the recent history of the club (a woman was shot on 1 March and a tow truck driver was shot at on 7 March), I doubt that it just *happened to catch fire.

Actually I find the story of the woman being shot all the more remarkable in that it recapitulates the most famous incident to happen at this building. In both cases people inside the building were shot by bullets coming in from outside the club. Luckily, the woman is said to not be gravely injured -- in the first incident a man was killed. As I recall the story, the fatal incident happened while the building was occupied by Chastitys Gold Club. It seems that a man (a lawyer in fact!) was attempting to take liberties with a dancer that neither she nor club management would countenance, and the man was thrown out of the club, whereupon he went home, got a gun, came back and fired through the (closed) front door, killing a club employee.

I don't think that Chastitys ever really recovered from the bad publicity, and after limping on for a while, closed in 2009. The building shortly re-opened as another strip club, Savannahs Gentlemens Club (no apostrophies anywhere..) which didn't last too long and was replaced by Club Crush in late 2010 or 2011.

In fact, this building has always seemed to have sort of a revolving door problem. I was amused recently when both The State and The Free Times reported on Richland County mooting a change to zoning rules to close county stripclubs, and both papers seemed to believe that Chastitys was still open (unsurprisingly they noted they were unable to get a comment from the owners about the proposed regulations, given that the club was long gone..). Some other businesses I know of in this building were Coconuts Inc, The Club House and Crockmeyer's,which all sound like night clubs, and Swipe USA which doesn't. (In fact, I'm not sure what that sounds like..).

I'm not sure about Club Crush, but the building itself did not appear badly damaged, and based on history, I predict a club will be open there again soon, whatever the name.

UPDATE 13 December 2013: According to The State the building as been denied a permit to operate as a bar under new ownership, with, I think, the subtext being: this is for all time. To me this seems like visiting the sins of the past into the future..

UPDATE 19 January 2018 -- The place either is operating as or is about to open as Tryst:

Once upon a time, this building was The Whale's Tail and then Rubino's Italian Restaurant. More recently it has been the second location for Alpine Road's Little Pigs Barbeque -- in fact, after the Alpine Road store caught fire, and before it was repaired, this was the flagship location, though it's hard to imagine a place further away from Alpine Road but still "in the Columbia area".

The building does not seem to be up for sale, and is still furnished, so perhaps the owners have plans to re-open, or open a different restaurant here.

(Hat tip to commenter Nobody).

UPDATE 17 June 2013 -- Cletus' Roadside Grille is now operating in this building (and has been for a while):

I suspect that all three of these businesses were the same operation as the name still posted on the building Ca$h-N-Da$sh and went defunct at the same time.

Curiously, this nice old brick house is directly adjacent to another vanished quick cash operation: Title Doc at 2819 Broad River. It's interesting that both operations would see this as a good place to set up shop, and both of them be wrong (although, of course, conditions were a lot different before 2008).

UPDATE 13 March 2023 -- Well this place has been razed:

Also adding map icon and updating tags.

This little house on the west side of Broad River Road near the old George's Book Exchange really deserved better.

I can imagine that back in the day, before the road was widened, it would have been a nice place to settle down and start a family.

The construction permits are dated November 2009, and list First Community Bank as the owner, so Title Doc must have been gone by then. Curiously, the house next door, which I'll do at some point, was also a title-loan type place.

Given my disinclination to do anything before noon, buildings on the west side of the road are always a problem in pictures on this site, and these taken-against-the-sun shots of the location of the old Cycle Center and newer Rent-N-Roll are no exception.

There is a remedy in this case, so far at least: the LoopNet listing for this building has better lit pictures of both the cycle and auto incarnations of the spot and the still extant Rent-N-Roll site has a 100 picture slideshow of automotive candy sitting in front of the building.

The new tenant seems to be in now, and the place is a tobacco, beer and package store called Kings.

(Hat tip to commenter Jonathan)

Well, I have to say that the web site for this place is certainly an interesting attempt at persuading someone to make a major purchase! I'll bet anyone surfing for a car from work had a moment of boss fear..

I'll also note that in Computer Science, something is "virtual" if it appears to be there but actually is not, which I guess is a good metaphor for the current state of this car lot on the East side of Broad River Road not too far from Videos & Beyond.

This nail salon was in Boozer Shopping Center right next to the new location for Hook 'n Needle.

I'm not sure what "PC" stood for in this context as presumably their work was Mac compatible as well..

Sewing & crochet shop Hook 'n Needle was a long-time retail stalwart at Intersection Center. In fact, I'm pretty sure they were the last shop there to either go under or move. Happily, the latter applies here, and at some point this year, Hook 'n Needle moved to the North-West corner of Boozer Shopping Center.

The first three pictures of the old location are from 29 August 2008, the fourth is from 4 September 2010 and the last three are from 24 September 2011.

The church rebuilding Intersection Center continues to make good progress, and hopefully I'll have some pictures of the repurposed Service Merchandise and the new fountain up soon.

UPDATE 22 January 2020: Add map icon, update tags.

Tall Finery was a clothing store, presumably for tall women, in Boozer Shopping center, on the same side of the plaza a The Book Dispensary, Dems House of Diamonds and Ron Graham Allergy & Air Quality. Come to think of it, that side (the north one) has been hit pretty hard in recent years.

If all went as planned, the space should be a contract Post Office by now, which makes sense as I can't think of a Fed-Ex or UPS Store in the general area.