Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I was driving down the Old Bush River Road section of Bush River Road the other weekend, coming from Lexington into Irmo, and I noticed that Century Glass has moved their Bush River location to the other river road at 4059 Broad River Road. I believe they may still be using this building for non-customer space though as it is still listed in the phonebook, and Google Street View from March 2017 shows the moving sign already up.

Here is another of Harbison Boulevard's Mattress Firm stores. It looks like they already have a new tenant, Rainbow, lined up, though I have no idea what that is.

I confess I have very little reason to go to Harbison Court anymore with both Barnes & Noble and Chili's being gone though I guess I did eat at Olive Garden once last year.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

After commenter MJ mentioned that this place, at the corner of Bush River Road & Morninghill Drive, might be closed, I went to check it out, but I could never be completely sure. The delivery notice post-its stuck to the door made me 99% sure, but there were no actual posted hours I could verify it not being open at, and looking in the windows, all the furnishings and glasses seemed to be in place. There was a sign on the door, but it was facing inwards, and illegible.

That was in June. Going back a few days ago, the situation is now clear, with a sheriff's notice and a real estate sign. However, the interior still looks largely untouched.

(Hat tip to commenter MJ)

UPDATE 9 October 2023 -- This place has been razed:

UPDATE 10 October 2023 -- Some night-time shots that show the demolition

UPDATE 24 October 2023 -- Beter demolition pix:

UPDATE 22 February 2024 -- There is some sort of small-ish concrete block building going up here:

UPDTE 16 May 2024 -- The new building on this site is in progress:

UPDATE 18 September 2024 -- The new Checkers building is coming along:

As far as I can tell, Accessible Mobility Center was a Concord NC based chain for selling wheelchair accessible vans, and lately as the sign notes, mobility scooters. They were bought out earlier this year by Akron based MobilityWorks and the storefront for the combined company is now at 3624 Fernandina Road.

It remains to be seen what is next for this Dutch Square area storefront.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 27 June 2022 -- Setting up to be Community Credit:

Old time hardware stores are a vanishing breed. As a kid, I remember visits to the old Forest Lake Hardware at Forest Lake Shopping Center, the old Hiller downtown, and Hiller in Five Points, and various stores at the beach and in Fernandina. They were mysterious places with big revolving bins of loose nails and odd brackets, and men behind well worn wooden counters who knew how to do stuff.

After Thanksgiving, there will be one less in Columbia, as Cedar Terrace Hardware is packing it in. The State has the story, and it's a case of the owner's well deserved retirement with nobody else willing to take the store on.

To the best of my memory, I have never been to this store. It's quite tucked away in the back of the plaza, and a case of out-of-sight-out-of-mind, but there's always something I need from a hardware store so perhaps I'll take a look before it's too late.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Here is another Mattress Firm location already cleared out and debranded (you can barely see the label scar).

In keeping with the general Mattress Firm situation, this one was just 0.8 miles (per Google Maps) from the store at 4732 Devine Street.

Given how many classic arcade games I played in college (Galaga, anyone?), it's a bit odd that I never got into PC or console games. Perhaps it's because I sit in front of a computer all day, perhaps it's just that reading is too much fun and takes too much time. However that all washes out, it means I never visited this Two Notch video game storefront, but I see that you have one more week to stop by and get 50% off.

This storefront is in that faux Tudor little strip of Harbision around the Bower Parkway intersection. Portrait Innovations listed in the 2018 phonebook, so I'm pegging the closing as this year. From what I can see Portrait Innovations is a national photography chain, and there is still apparently a store at Sandhill.

That was pretty quick work. The pictures of the store in operation were taken on 9 October 2018, and by 16 October, the signage is down and the store is empty save for a few mattresses stacked against the front wall -- No closing sale, no bargains, just gone.

This is the second vacancy in the still fairly new Jackson Square (which replaced, most recently, Liquids Gentlemen's Club). Earlier in the year, the adjacent Tijuana Flats closed, and has yet to be replaced.

UPDATE 15 November 2021 -- Now a Club Champion gym:

UPDATE 13 December 2021 -- Here's the other side of the Club Champion:

I kind of like the folklore quality of identifying liquor stores with red dots. I think it was more a legal thing, at least at one time, than were the barber pole, the pawnbroker's trio of balls and the medical cross & caduceus, but it falls in that category nonetheless. Anyway, this store, not far from the antique mall, is listed in the 2018 phonebook, so it either closed this year, or after listings closed last year.