Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I have used Young's several times, perhaps most notably for service on my father's venerable Toro, but also to get some keys cut after Home Depot botched them. They are an old-school place where there's a bit of everything.

As reported by commenter Matt, the owner is now retiring, and they are running a closing sale.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

UPDATE 16 July 2019: The State says that the final auction day is 17 August 2019, so I have changed the closing date in the post title to reflect that. They also say the lot will become a Circle K.

UPDATE 18 November 2019 -- As mentioned in the comments, this building has been razed:

UPDATE 7 February 2020 -- Construction is ongoing:

UPDATE 14 May 2020 -- The Circle K on this spot is now open:

When commenter Brad mentioned

Circle K/BP at the corner of Old Cherokee and 378 in Lexington is permanently closed.

I had a hard time finding it because as far as I could tell from Google Maps, Old Cherokee Road didn't intersect with 378. I resolved to just keep my eyes open the next time I was out in Lexington, and did see the store as shown in the pictures above (not very good as I was going the wrong way and was too late to turn in).

Anyway, for whatever reason, unless you zoom way in, Google identifies this stretch of Old Cherokee only as State Rd S32-485, though it has no problem with correctly labeling stretches of the road to the west.

As for Circle K, they have been razing and updating a lot of their stores recently. We'll see if this one gets the same treatment.

(Hat tip to commenter Brad)

I was rather surprised by this closing, although East Forest Plaza has certainly had its share of turnover lately. The chain is pitching this as a relocation as noted in this press release, with the new location being at 2209 West Dekalb Street in Camden. I guess the management team could have relocated intact, but surely for the rank and file, those jobs are gone -- nobody is going to commute from Columbia to Camden.

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad)

I was going through some old pictures and noticed that I never did a closing for Carolina Window & Millwork on Laurel Street. I don't actually know anything about the place other than Google suggests it was an auto glass place (although, just from the name that sounds wrong..), and that the storefront is now Distinctive Surfaces kitchen and bath store.

They listed in the February 2014 phonebook, but not the February 2015 one, so I'm putting the closing date as 2014.

Wristwatch Doc used to be in Forest Acres where Marco's Pizza is now, but moved to Knox Abbott in April of 2014.

When the old Oscar de la Renta watch my father gave me in the 1980s started losing time, I took it here and they fixed it pretty quickly. (Well, I think they just replaced the guts, but that's fine with me, I'm a George Washington's Hatchet kind of guy.)

Unfortunately, I dropped it again a few months ago, and it's losing time again. Not sure where I'll take it this time.

Several folks in Have Your Say talking about watch batteries. If I'm in town, I take mine to Roof's on Forest Drive, and have never had a problem.

The wierdest time I ever had replacing a battery was when my watch stopped while I was spending a week working in DC. There's a big mall on the, um, blue, I think, line, Pentagon City or Crystal City, something like that. I metro-ed down to that and found a jeweler who told me: No problem! We'll send it off and have it back to you in two weeks. I asked if anyone had, in fact, ever taken them up on that, and apparently the answer was no.

Looking further there, I found something like the Watch & Sunglasses Hut, which did not inspire confidence, but I was there and didn't have any better options. The guy took the back off easily, and replaced the battery fine. Then he was having a dickens of a time getting the back on again, and I started to worry that he was going to bend it, or break the crystal with all the pounding he was doing. Finally he turns around to his counter and says, I guess I'm going to have to use this thingamajig that puts the puts the backs back on. He puts the watch in it, works a screw and presto: the back is on. I'm like, well, I dunno, but if I had a device for putting the backs of watches on, that might have been my first option..

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

While I was at Landmark Square the other day, I noticed an empty storefront near the anchor.

Somehow I missed the story a few years ago, but Shepherd's Corner Christian book store closed in May of 2017 when the owner moved back to West Virginia.

The store started in Cedar Terrace, and moved to this spot in 2002, for a total of just under 40 years of service.

Elite Pawn & Gun moved into this space after Ole Timey Meat Market. They last listed in the February 2017 phonebook, so I am going to mark the closing date as 2017.

The new tenant is SMP Phone Doctor, a cellphone sales and repair shop. I'm not sure what is going on with all the trucks.

UPDATE 11 July 2019 -- I'm updated the post title with "Moved", as I saw the new location for this place, which is in the old H. Rubin Vision Center closer to town:

I like Dollar General well enough. It's kind of like a slightly down-market drugstore without a pharmacy, and can be easier to zip in and out of than a Wallgreen's and much easier than a Walmart. I'm not sure what the problem here was. It could be that they just want to build a freestanding store in the area as that is what most of their new stores are, and the area is building up. On the other hand, maybe it's not built up enough and they weren't making any money. (In other words: I don't know!).

There are some good exterior and interior pictures of the store in operation here.

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

UPDATE 12 June 2019 -- Adding "Moved" to the post title as it turns out this Dollar General has moved to a new freestanding store per the comments.

UPDATE 11 July 2019 -- Here is the freestanding new location around the corner:

We'll stay with Decker Village for another closing. The store at the far right end of the plaza started as an Eckerd, transitioned into a Rite Aid and is now a Walgreen's.

This is the least Walgreen's looking Walgreen's in Columbia, and is the only one I can think of off the top of my head that is not a standalone building. To be fair, it wasn't a very Rite Aid looking Rite Aid either.

One of the congratulatory graffiti on the windows of this Murraywood Centre personalized gifts store mentions that they have been in business for 26 years, which is certainly a good run and prelude to a well deserved retirement. Their Facebook page has some of the details.

It looks like the final sale is already ongoing, so you'd better get down there soon if you want to check it out.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)