Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I used this location of Cartridge World a few years ago to refill the toner in my HP Laserjet, and that refurbished cartridge is still going strong. Sometime this year, this branch moved out of the Forest Park plaza next to Cardninal Newman, west down Forest Drive past beltline to a new location more or less across from The Pizza Joint and next to Lizard's Thicked.

It looks like the Forest Park storefront is currently being used for overflow storage.

Interesting tidbit in The Sun News.

Here's the thing, this store, the one at Pawleys Island / Litchfield Beach and the recently closed store on Garners Ferry Road are all relatively new and upscale stores. This one in Forest Park is especially nice, and the one at the beach is in the same class (though a bit smaller, I believe). When you're abandoning your best stores, that can't be a good sign.

Bumble Botique & Bee Maternal were really, as I understand it, one operation with the area under one nameplate specializing in kids' clothes and the area under the other specializing in maternity wear. Commenter Matt suggests the stores were doing OK, but were a sideline for the owners and eventually started to become too much to deal with.

I'm reasonably sure these are the storefronts previously anyway occupied by Corma's Health Foods and Bobby's Barber Shop though they have been extensively remodeled.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

I've noticed this little Korean place, on Percival not too far from Forest Drive, over a fairly long period of years, though I never knew the name.

Interestingly, while the sign says Cho Won, google doesn't find that incarnation at all. Apparently it is now a bar C & J Lounge.

I was quite surprised to see this Hardee's, more or less at the corner of Percival Road and Forest Drive, closed.

As far as I could tell driving by daily, it seemed to do a reasonable amount of business. What's more, this section of Forest Drive is now an Interstate exit zone, so it should have been drawing from more than just the local area.

My first thought was that the opening of Cookout just a few slots down the road was the cause. The problem with that theory is that Hardee's does a brisk breakfast business, and Cookout, as far as I know, doesn't have a breakfast menu.

The more daylight shots above are from commenter kholler: Thanks!

(Hat tip to commenters Mr. Hat and Kholler)

UPDATE 12 July 2013 -- As mentioned in the comments, this is to become a Sonic:

UPDATE -- The place opens for business this morning (9 Sept 2013) at 6AM. Here is some more of the work from a few weeks ago:

UPDATE 19 June 2021: Adding tags and map icon.

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I noticed yesterday that Five Guys on Forest Drive in the old Forest Lake Exxon building was closed. I figured maybe they were buffing the floor or fixing some sort of plumbing issue, but they remained closed on Monday and from what I can see (which isn't too much as I couldn't get a close look) there is major work going on in there. The website doesn't offer any additional information other than "closed today", but the fact that it's still listed leaves me to believe they will be back.

It will be interesting to see what they are doing, as the building was completely refitted just a few years ago.

UPDATE 23 January 2013: Added some daylight pictures, though still not very good ones.

UPDATE 31 Jan 2013; Work is complete and the place is open again.

UPDATE 1 May 2023: Interestingly, this is about ten years since my last update to this post. Five Guys is closed again for renovations, and is expected to reopen on 12 May 2023. I'm not sure exactly what needed changing: I've eaten there several times recently, and the place seemed to be in pretty good shape. I guess my least favorite thing is the faux-wood chairs, but obviously that's not the issue here.

(Also updating tags and adding the map icon)

UPDATE 6 June 2023 -- As mentioned, open again:

I've never actually been really sure what Pilates is. I know it's hard to spell and seems like it would be hard to do as well. At any rate, this small studio in Trenholm Plaza, next to 32 Degrees Yogurt is now gone, probably as of the end of the year.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

UPDATE 9 January 2013: Commenter Dave reports they have actually moved to 2864 Devine Street, so I have changed the status to "moved".

UPDATE 5 Feb 2013: Here's some pix of their new digs at 2864 Devine Street in the old AJ's / Strobler building:

Carolina Paws pet grooming shared the old Dobbs House building with Forest Lake Spirits until moving to 1647 Budon Court in early May of 2012.

I thought I would take this opportunity to mention not only that move, but the ongoing work in the old building. There has been a dumpster out front for several weeks, and the permits arrayed on the door indicate that the place is being upfitted for a new restaurant (or at least, I can think of no other reason for a "hood' to be installed).

UPDATE 10 April 2013 -- Well, it's official -- The Schiano's sign is up:

According to their phone ad, PAL Travel has been around since 1976. Since this year's phonebook came out (February 2012), they have elected to consolidate with the AAA Folks at 4526 Forest Drive. You may recall that address as it was very nearly totally destroyed by fire a while back, the results of which you can see at the link.

It's been open again for a while now and all is well: