Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I've always thought it odd that there were two Bank of America locations on Two Notch so close to each other. This one is on the west side of O'Neil Court, and the other is at 7405 on the east side of O'Neil Court (and in the Lowe's parking lot).

Apparently they have recently regularized the situation by closing this one down, with the exception of ATM service. It's not clear to me if two ATMs will remain on the lot. The day I noticed that the drive-through lanes were closed and took these pictures, something was going on at the "back" ATM and access to its drive-up lane was blocked though the machine appeared to be running.

The lot itself is fairly big, and opens on both Two Notch and O'Neil Court -- I can't imagine that they plan to leave it vacant with just ATM(s) for long. I expect they will put it on the market at some point.

UPDATE 13 March 2022 -- Apparently this building has now been sold. I'm not sure if that includes the ATM on the O'Neil Court side:

Also adding map icon.

UPDATE 12 June 2023 -- As mentioned in the comments, this building has now been razed.

30 March 2023:

12 June 2023:

UPDATE 13 June 2024 -- Now (almost) open a a Checkers:

Commenter Justin noted a while back this this River Drive conenience store has closed. I was not aware of the place, but it is actually fairly well placed as I cannot think of another one nearby. The next closest would be the one at the top of the hill on the other side of the river I believe.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 19 January 2018 -- Here's a bit of a further back view:

UPDATE 28 September 2021 -- The addresses don't completely match,3810 vs 3806, but I'm pretty sure this spot is now a CK Mart:

Also adding map icon for 3810.

Back on 20 April, I decided to finally see "Logan" before it left first-run theaters. As it happened, I was at the beach, and as also often happens, the Myrtle Beach theaters had their own notions of what was "current". In the end, I had to run to Conway to catch the show.

As I overplanned the transit-time, I had a few minutes to drive around the shopping area near the theater, and the Radio Shack above caught my eye. I knew they had had a second bankruptcy by then, so I wasn't surprised to see it closing, but the chain kind of slipped out of my mind again after that, and I didn't really have any idea how things were proceding. 'Not well', is the answer:

Over the Memorial Day weekend, RadioShack—which filed for bankruptcy twice in two years—closed over 1,000 stores, leaving just 70 corporate locations and 500 dealer stores in operation across the U.S. Throughout the weekend, the consumer electronics retailer announced a liquidation sale that played out on social media. Social media represents a new plot twist for America's dying retailers: How do you toast a brand's final days when the world is watching?

RadioShack opted for unadulterated bleakness. The company's social media handle on Twitter shared photos that depicted the sale of store fixtures, $25 grab bags stuffed with items pieced at $5 apiece, and deeply discounted printers. Here are some tweets that highlighted the carnage.

Take that in for a second. I don't know if it's more surprising that they still had over 1000 stores, or that they closed over 1000 stores in a weekend, but it's impressive in its own grim way.

The dealer stores will probably make do; I think they are mostly small market independant electronics stores that basically use the Radio Shack affiliation to signal that they're a step up from Uncle Bob's convenience store that has phone chargers. I don't see what the point of a corporate store is at all with just 70 though.

Patrick Stewart deserves a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, by the way.

Well, another little bit of my childhood gone. After the tear-down of the minature golf place in Litchfield (probably sometime around 1970) this was the next Southernmost minature golf course on the strand, and where we played most often when I was a teen. Somehow at the time, I thought the theme was pre-historic instead of "jungle" and I considered the natives at the right-front part of the course to be cavemen (or women -- there was one statue of a woman who seemed to alternate between topless and fur bikini depending on how recently she had been painted..).

Looking at the size of the lot now that it has been cleared and leveled, it's amazing that a full 18 hole course was there, along with ponds, statues, switchbacks, hills and trees. It's possible I may have some shots of the place in operation that will turn up some day, but in the meantime, you can check out the Facebook Page.

Time to cue up Big Yellow Taxi

Well this has been pretty ventilated in Have Your Say for a while now, but the Bi-Lo at Friarsgate Plaza will be closing soon. Unlike some of the other local Bi-Lo's, this one will apparently not be becoming a Harvey's.

Googling around, I see that a lot of other Bi-Los have closed recently as the chain continues to fare poorly, though I have always been happy enough with the stores whenever I happened to stop in at one.

In this particular case, the venue does not help as Friarsgate Plaza does not seem to be thriving. You can see one indication of such by looking at the plaza marquee, which continues to tout Monterrey, which featured in a closing here six years ago.

(Hat tip to commenter ED)

UPDATE 12 June 2017 -- Still open. Pretty picked over, but still some good staples. Mostly 40%off:

UPDATE 30 September 2021 -- Now a CubeSmart self-storage place:

Also updating tags and adding map icon.

Seen at the Dutch Square Hardee's by commenter uscnurse

Medical home oxygen supplier Aerocare has moved out of this Sunset Boulevard plaza (which also housed Riveras Mexican) and over into Cayce on State Street south of Knox Abbott. Their new location is the second building in the pictures above.

I haven't driven by in a while, but the Sunset storefront was still empty last time I checked.

Here is the second Smart Choice location to feature here. This is an interesting little strip building of Broad River just downhill from the Bush River Road intersection. For some reason, this storefront seems to have a logo which the one on Two Notch did not.

I looked briefly for the Augusta Road location, but could not find it in the few minutes I was in the area.

(Hat tip to commenter Bart Laber, address from commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 23 May 2017 -- Well I'm re-writing this post because I was wrong about Carolina Wiring being closed. I was fooled by the fact that the trucks weren't there, but as I learned in a nice note from Travis at that operation, they are working on the building, and are still very much around.

So if you need "anything from Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) systems to Dedicated Home Theaters", you can get up with them at 803-748-9473 and wiredbycws.com.

I still like these old Dairy Queen buildings, and if you saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 then you know this DQ design featured in a key scene:

Come to Lake Murray Crossfit and get your drink on. Well not exactly perhaps, but the signage is still there. Commenter John R says that they have moved to the Old Mill.

I think the last time I was at Pastime Pavilion, I had driven all the over from Forest Acres to see "Mad Max" only to find out when I got there that I had read the listings wrong, and what was playing was "Max" a movie about a dog.

(Hat tip to commenter John R)