Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Closed For Renovation

This is the dreaded Closed For Remodeling trope. It seems to me that the majority of businesses that sport such a sign, never re-open. There are a few exceptions, but in general it seems to me that getting into a situation where there's no money coming in, plus lots of expenses is bad news. The right way to remodel is to keep the store open the whole time, even if you have to put the cash registers in the parking lot for a few days. That's how the Forest Drive / I-77 Wal-Mart is doing it, and while it's been a big mess, they've had money coming in every day.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, this business started as a SpeeDee and then transitioned into an independant but similar business. This Irmo businesses web page dates back to March, so I'm assuming the place was open that late. The building was built in 1970 according to Loopnet, so it may well have been a couple of things before.

I think that apart from the remodeling trauma, Harbison may just be a bad location for a business like this. Traffic is so high, that I would never think of going there for something I could get elsewhere on a less busy road.

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I wish Zorba's Express in Irmo were closer to home so I could get out there for pizza more often, but last time I did, I noticed that this nearby storefront in the same Publix plaza was now vacant.

Judging from the google hits, Kwik Kopy seemed to offer the same range of services as The UPS Store or FedEx Office. I wonder if the copying business is taking hits from home printers and electronic documents. I vividly remember the first time I used a copy center (it was kind of a new concept then) to make a copy of The Lions' Book. It took hours and cost me a considerable chunk of my nearly non-existent college-student cash. Today, someone would just download the PDF..

UPDATE 7 June 2010: Changed post closing date from 2010 to 2009 based on comments.

UPDATE 15 March 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.

Spinnaker's was at one time a fairly popular casual dining restaurant along the lines of Bennigan's or TGI Friday's. To differentiate themselves from the casual pack, they had two branding gimmicks.

First, they would generally locate as part of a mall rather than in a free-standing building, and second, they would bake the complimentary table bread in a glazed terra-cotta flower pot and bring it still in the hot pot to your table.

When I started working in Augusta, Regency Mall was already on the way down, and Augusta Mall was in its prime with a Spinnaker's on the Rich's side of the mall. On the Grand Strand, Spinnaker's had locations at both Briarcliff Mall (now Myrtle Beach Mall) and Inlet Square. In fact, I blame the loss of Spinnaker's at Inlet Square for the start of that unhappy mall's long (and continuing) downward spiral as the space was never re-leased.

The Inlet Square closing was the first one I noticed for Spinnaker's, and my memory is that it was fairly early on, perhaps in the early 90s. After that, it seemed as though every time I drove by a former location, it was gone. I believe the Briarcliff location closed next, followed by the Augusta one. According to The State's archives, this location at Columbiana Centre was open as recently as November 2001. At least one location was open as recently as November 2009 (picture also here). I'm thinking that one lived on as a legacy on the strength of the local operators as I can't seem to find any corporate site for the chain.

While I don't know why Spinnaker's went into decline, I can only say that I personally found it rather average. In particular, I recall two things: The French Onion Soup was chicken based rather than beef based, making it distinctly sub-standard in my opinion, and the Flower Pot Bread was a better concept than actuality as it tended to stick to the pot giving you a mangled loaf when you tried to get it out and was actually a very bland and uninspired recipie.

Until quite recently, the interior mall corridor at Columbia Centre still had the doors into the vacant Spinnaker's space. Within the last year, they have covered the whole facade over with a mural of a walking girl sporting Rapunzel hair and vending machines.

UPDATE 2 March 2010 -- Here's the empty Spinnaker's spot in Inlet Square Mall in Murrells Inlet:

UPDATE 26 march 2010: Changed closing date to "mid-2000s" based on comments.

UPDATE 9 October 2017 -- Finally a new restaurant! This spot is now a Red Robin:

I was out in the rain today in the Harbison area, and noticed this place as I drove back to the Interstate. I guess I'd heard the name Smokey Bones somewhere or other, but given my low interest in barbecue, I had no real idea where the place was, or that it was gone. From the note left on the door, I'm guessing that the same owner runs the listed Red Lobster and Olive Garden locations.

The architecture of the place is interesting. The entrance looks vaguely asian, and I wonder if the building were some sort of asian restaurant before Smokey Bones.

UPDATE 16 November 2011: Updated the closing date based on commenter Andrew's research.

This is not the fancy Piggly Wiggly that was once at the top of the hill on Saint Andrews Road, but a later store. It was a typical Pig of its time, which was somewhat before the chain's current upscale push with stores like Forest Drive and Litchfield Beach. As I recall, I only stopped here once, and found nothing in particular to like or dislike. The plaza where it was located is below the Bush River Road / Saint Andrews Road intersection, near the industrial plant and Seven Oaks Park. It was the anchor store, and the whole strip has been hurting since it closed. I'm not entirely sure why that happened, but I think it may have been leap-frogged by the upscale new Bi-Lo which opened a few blocks down the road. The property was vacant for a while after the Pig pulled out, but is now some sort of fitness center.

UPDATE 2 Feb 2011: Added store number (102) and full street address to post title.

UPDATE 9 March 2011: Added specific closing date based on comment by commenter Andrew

UPDATE-2 9 March 2011: Oops! There were two Pigs on Saint Andrews road, and I got the wrong date and address. (Which also means it was not store #102..) -- Fixed.

UPDATE-3 9 March 2011: OK, the store number moved here from the other Saint Andrews store, so it was store # 102, just not the first location for store #102.

UPDATE 20 May 2021: Adding map icon and updating tags.