Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I don't have much to say about this Metro By T-Mobile (formerly Metro PCS) storefront other than once it was here and now it is gone.

You can see the site with branding still up on Google Maps for now.

When I went to take this non-descript picture, I noticed that construction is now ongoing at the old Ruby Tuesday lot and that there is another vacancy in this strip by Bi-Lo, so things are still in flux here.

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad Egister)

I've been vaguely aware of The Lite House for a long time. I think I even recall them advertising on WIS Radio many years ago. Somehow that never led me to visit either location even though I have needed a lamp shade or harp every now and then.

This site is a little hard to get to, at least during rush hour as it is a difficult left turn off of Two Notch (assuming you are travelling towards Sandhill). While it is further away from me, I like the situation of the Bush River Road location better.

As of now, the site is closed and for sale, but the stock has not been warehoused or transferred across town.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I think somebody once commented on the site that this building was originally a Piggly Wiggly, but I can't find that comment right now. I don't remember that, and I don't really recall it being a Pier 1 either, though I think that may have been when I was living out of town.

At any rate, it has been furniture store Hines for a good few years now, and apparently would have continued so if the owners were willing to renew the lease.

That they were not implies they must have another tenant already in mind -- I don't think this is an area where you give up a sure thing on just the speculation that you can do better. I guess we'll see.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

UPDATE 2 October 2019: Based on the comments, I have added Piggly Wiggly to the post title.

UPDATE 30 June 2020: Update tags.

UPDATE 12 August 2022 -- Commenter Jimmy Freeman sends this shot of the building as a Pig saying

This is Piggly Wiggly that later became Pier 1 Imports, the Pig moved next to Kmart then later back to this location when building was remodeled, years later went out of business and Pier 1 opening.

Piggly Wiggly first moved due to church stop letting customers park in their parking lot due to the Pig selling alcohol

(Also added a closing date to the post title, which I had forgotten to do).

UPDATE 13 August 2022 -- Here are two more pictures from commenter Jimmy Freeman. He says he expects some dispute but that it is the same store:

Commenter Badger noted the closing of this Save A Lot, which I had not noticed. If I remember correctly, this store was originally in Landmark square.

When the Harden Street Save A Lot closed recently, one of the articles about that noted that 10 other Save A Lot stores had closed in December of 2018. Perhaps this was one of them.

For the store not really having been here for that long, the label-scar is quite distinct.

(Hat tip to commenter Badger)

I guess the writing was on the wall after this Staples cut their hours way back recently.

This was probably the Staples I went to most often over the years (with the Devine Street location a close second). In general it seemed to be a well stocked and run store, and I picked up my share of printer paper, hard drives, computer media, headphones, ethernet hubs, pens, post-its and other office and computer paraphernalia. The only knock on it I can think of is one that seems to be general to Staples as a whole: It always seems to take a bit longer to check out than it should.

Although they have posted a closing sign, there is not a sale going on, and the various "inventory" tags inside the store make me think they will be relocating the merchandise to other stores rather than doing a clearance.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Rocket Fizz is a franchaised soda & candy operation that to some extent puts me in the mind of The Candy Cottage at The Hammock Shops and a place that used to be on Centre Street in Fernandina Beach (which, gradually over the course of several years, transitioned into an all things Celtic shop..).

The place opened in August of 2018, and here is an article republished from Coladaily about the opening, with lots of nice pictures which make me think it would have been more at home on Market or King Streets in Charleston..

As far as I can tell with all the newest reviews being dated "seven months ago", the place seems to have closed in January 2019. I suspect that there wasn't a lot of Winter foot traffic, which may have factored in.

(Hat tip to commenter Payne)

I'm not sure how much USC still uses "textbooks" in the old sense. I haven't discussed it with anyone now in college, but my impression is that a lot of the books now are in ebook form. Since it sounds like the South Carolina Book Store is really getting out of the textbook market, that may be what happened.

At any rate, when I was in college this place was a sure visit every semester. In those, pre-internet, days this store and the USC owned textbook concession in the Russell House had a duopoly lock on the student book market. I usually tried to get all my bokos on campus, but invaribly there were one or two that were sold out and had to be tracked down here. They would also buy back textbooks, and from time to time growing up, my father would take me here with boxes of books that he had been sent in the hopes he would choose them for his classes, and would sell them, giving the proceeds to my sister and me. (I think he felt it wouldn't be quite right to take the money himself).

Aside from the texts, this place also had a heady mix of pencils, pens, notebooks, art supplies and drafting paper. There was a certain very specific smell when you walked in from all the paper and pencils. If I recall correctly, I had to get all my drafting supplies for my all-time least favorite class: Introduction To Engineering Drafting (or some similar name). I had a compass, gum erasers, drafting pencils, drafting paper and straight-edge. All of that, and after trying all day, I still could not draw a bolt in 3D perspective.

Despite driving past this store many times since college, I don't think I have been in since the 1980s, and I now it's too late to see if it still smelled the same..

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

I noticed yesterday when I took the pictures for the J. Peters post, that 2005 North Beltline is also the new location for Wild Birds Unlimited. I first noticed them when they moved from 3304 Forest Drive to this location in the Forest Park shopping center (If they still call it that) around 2010.

Now, they have moved on again, and this is the new storefront:

UPDATE 22 June 2022: Updating tags.

This place caught my eyes many years ago for an odd reason: The name Impress.

As it happens, I worked for many years with a brand of laser printer called Imagen (since bought out by QMS). We had many of these printers from a former contract, and used to deploy them on new contracts wherever a laser printer was wanted. Unfortunately, the printers did not support HP PCL or Adobe PostScript, they only supported their own proprietary page description language called.. IMPRESS, which very little software supported. In practice, we mostly had to use them in daisy-wheel printer emulation mode.

None of which has anything to do with this store, of course. As I said, it has been here for quite a while and is now running a final clearance sale, so if you need some prom formal wear, or a bridesmaid dress, now might be the time to go looking.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Value City Furniture has relocated from The Meeting Place (formerly Capitol Centre) behind Columbia Mall and has opened in the old Toys 'R' Us in Harbison.

I believe this whole complex is now owned by The Meeting Place church, so I don't know if they will seek another retail tenant, or use the building for church functions. I did not see any indication that it was for sale or lease.

Just as a note, there seems to be some confusion on whether the road around the mall is Columbia Mall Boulevard or Columbia Mall Road. Google maps uses "Road".

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)