Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The last time I was at Sandhill, this frame shop in the Bi-Lo wing, was planning to work through the holidays and close at the end of the year. With H. Rubin and Rita's, there are now a number of vacancies on this side.

There is a beachwear store in Surfside Beach that has been Going Out Of Business since about 1985, and it seems sex-toy store Taboo in the former Taco Bell on Devine Street has been promising the same for almost as long. In fact, the closing signs have gone up two or three times before this latest, seemingly final, iteration.

I have a certain amount of sympathy given that the store originally complied with the city's intentionally difficult siting rules to open only to have them changed to specifically target Taboo -- something the store fought all the way to the Supreme Court.

Here is my 2014 false-alarm Closing for the store, followed here by another 2018 false-alarm. Here is a WIS story from 2016 touting the imminent closing, and this State story from December 2019 apparently finally calls it correctly.

UPDATE 21 June 2021 -- Razed:

Update 2 February 2023 -- Clutch Coffee is now open here in a new building:

I had this store confused with Michael's on the corner of Saint Andrews & Piney Grove, which is still open. This spot is a bit further up the street.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 6 April 2022 -- I'm not sure what happened in the intervening period -- I guess it must have opened again, but this place is going out of business once more:

I don't really get over to this side of Sandhill very often, and I didn't actually remember that there was a Kitty's here. My favorite's were always Hallmark Lite: 1/3 Less Serious Than Regular Cards, and I was disappointed when they discontinued them years ago. I still do like the Shoebox label, albeit not quite as much.

This closure leaves Kitty's without a store in Columbia, though they are still in the Midlands with Irmo & Lexington locations.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

UPDATE 24 August 2022: Updating tags.

I don't believe I was ever in Pecknel Music in Five Points, but I was certainly aware that it was there for most of my life.

The State had the story a while before they moved. It was basically a changing market, the lease being up, and certain physical issues:

For instance, the present store’s repair shop is on the second floor, with no elevator.

“You get tired of carrying tubas up the stairs,” Morgan said.

The new location is 930 N Lake Drive in Lexington, which seems to be the Food Lion/Books-A-Million plaza.

And let me refer back to this converstation between commenters Terry & Dennis for some ancient Pecknel Five Points history:

I thought John Futch worked in a music store in 5 Points back around 1970. They had this high powered amp with a huge metal horn mounted on a base with a dolly called The Mother Dude that they kept by the front door. I'm thinking this place was on Harden near the location of the original Backpacker.

Terry

Terry -- wow! I saw the Mother Dude! I heard it in action once in the middle of Five Points and the police showed up immediately. This was at Pecknel's right after they had moved to their current building. For years before that they were across the street where Sid & Nancy's is now.

Dennis

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

UPDATE 5 April 2020 -- Here are a few pictures I just found of Pecknel from 1 February 2015:

This store closed at the same time as the Parkland Plaza store, but I kept forgetting to get pictures of it until it caught my eye the other night. As of now, six months later, the building is still to be re-purposed. WLTX has the story of the chain's foreclosure.

Apparently, Hall Marine was bought out by MarineMax. The link does not give a date for the sale, but commenter Mitch reports that the local Hall closed on 30 September.

With Lake Murray in the area, I would have expected this meant that they were consolidating at another nearby MarineMax, but instead it appears they have exited the Columbia market entirely. From their store finder, it looks like the closest (and only SC) outlet is in Charleston.

I find the 7459 Broad River Road address a little curious as the place is obviously well off Broad River Road and appears to be on Western Lane.

(Hat tip to commenter Mitch)

I didn't have time to stop and get good shots, but longtime Five Points staple, Sylvan & DuBose is closing. The State has the story:

Sylvan & DuBose Jewelers in Five Points is closing after nearly a century in business.

Owner Bruce DuBose is retiring., and his children, Matthew and Laura, who are the fifth generation to work at the store, don’t want to take over the business, he said.

“”I’m old,” DuBose, 68, said with a laugh. “I’m tired. I don’t want to do it anymore.”

The store at 622 Harden St. will close at the end of the year, he said.

I only go to jewelers when I have wristwatch issues, so I don't think I've ever been in this store, but I've certainly been aware of the name for my entire life. It will be interesting to see what is next here. Apparently the family owns the building, and will nix a bar as the follow-on operation.

Currently, the closing sale is ongoing.

(Hat tip to commenter Beth)

As you can see in the first picture above, barely, and only if you click-through, the closing of PIggly Wiggly and the opening of Roses in that space left Edens Plaza with two discount stores literally right next to each other. In the event, it looks like Dolar General has decided the situation wasn't tenable and closed shop. Of course, this also aligns with their current strategy of moving away from strip-mall stores to stand-alone locations, so I wouldn't be surprised if that were a factor as well.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Well, the story here is the same as for the the Lexington Kmart: It's a Kmart. It's closing.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to go inside, and I was shooting against the sun for the exterior shots, but it looks pretty much as you would expect.

There have been a good number of closures in this general area in the past few years. All of Ryans, Rite Aid, Taco Cid, and Toyota Center come to mind. On the other hand, there is a new plaza around the Walmart at the top of Knox Abbott, so there is some new growth.

(I continue to be confused by the boundries between West Columbia & Cayce. I would have guessed this location to be Cayce, but it seems not.)

(Hat tip to lots of folks)

UPDATE 22 April 2020 -- Commenter Mr. Bill sent in these interiors from the Kmart a while ago, and I managed to misplace them. Here they are now: