Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Commenter Sidney reported this closing just recently, but it appears to me that it may have happened last year. At least, this little thrift store on the east side of Cedar Terrace is listed in the February 2011 phonebook but not in this year's (February 2012). I think the little window bunny is the sadest thing..

In the same wing of the plaza (though not really in front of the thrift store) is one of those generic soda machines that you very rarely see anymore. It looks as though it may have been doing duty there for the last 40 years.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

I noticed this vacancy on Percival Road (between Alpine & Smallwood Roads) the other day when I was running out to Sandhill and decided against taking I-20. According to this year's phonebook (February 2012), the new location for Jacob's Heating & Air is 2213 Screaming Eagle Road, several miles towards US-601 from here. Assuming they are after the Columbia market, that seems like it would be a lot more truck miles per year, but perhaps they are after Lugoff & Camden.

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Someone can probably look at the gas price signs and make a better guess at exactly when Socastee Mini Mart went under, but I'm pretty sure it was open last summer and not last November 13th (when these pictures were taken -- Unfortunately, it was not a sunny day).

The place is on SC-544, probably 5 miles on the Socastee side of Coastal Carolina. SC-544 is the handy little cut-through from US-501 to US-17 and can save you a lot of grief if you end up inbound to Myrtle by the north route. It's less useful than it used to be though, as there are now more lights and a constant 45MPH speed limit. For many years, the road had a real rural character, and this station is a holdover from that era. Now however the area is getting more and more built up, and "regular" chains are starting to move in.

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This garage, which apparently caught fire some years ago, is on Dreyfuss Road, just down from the intersection with Assembly Street, and to the north side of the stadium.

I didn't see an intact street number on it anywhere, so I can't google the address to see what it was. It was pretty clearly a commercial garage, but I don't see any evidence of lifts or pits, so prehaps it was more of a dispatch and storage garage than a service one. In any case, the visibility and location are poor for anything catering to the general public. I've put the closing date as the very indefinite "2000s", but even that's just a guess -- 1990s wouldn't surprise me. At any rate it's been derelict long enough to be fairly heavily tagged.

Anyone know what this was?

UPDATE 23 June 2012: Well, commenter badger provides and address "1011 Dreyfuss Road" and a link to this WLTX story about the Christmas Eve 2009 fire that gutted the place. With that address, I was able to find a number of former tenants of the place, and I have changed the post title from "Garage" to a list of names. I also note that I was wrong about the place not catering to the general public.

Appropos to a discussion on the future of newspapers that I was part of in an online newsgroup, I was moved to take the following photos.

As Al Stewart said:

In the village where I grew up
Nothing seems the same
Still you never see the change from day to day
And no-one notices the customs slip away

I mentioned in my closing for New York Butcher Shoppe & Grille that my visit to take those pictures was only my second to Lake Carolina.

My first vist was actually some years earlier, probably in 2008, when I read a review for a new pizzeria. I suspect it was in the Free Times, but could have been in The State's "Weekend" section. At any rate, it was an excellent review, and I resolved to check it out though I had no idea in the world where Lake Carolina Way was.

My difficulty was somewhat compounded by trying to make the visit well after dark, but I finally found my way in. I have to admit that given the trouble I had getting there, I was seriously underwhelmed by the actual pizza experience. I forget exactly what put me off, but I *think* it was one of those places where they didn't have anything smaller than a 14" pie, and I ended up having to order a calzone, which was mediocre. At any rate, though the details are a bit fuzzy now, I was never tempted to go back, and the place had a very brief run, opening in 2008 and apparently closing in 2009.

For some reason I did not think to get a good picture of the new tenant without obstructing trees, but it is currently Tasty China.

Commenter ED points out that the Bel-Air Barber Shop, a Boozer Shopping Center institution, has closed after 40 years. The old style places certainly seem to be closing faster than new ones are springing up. And of course it's depressing to note as well that if this place was 40 years old -- it is a lot *newer* than the places I started getting my hair cut..

(Hat tip to commenter ED)

I confess I had not known about Happy Frog Gelato Cafe until commenter Eddie mentioned that it had closed. I'm guessing that that probably happened at the end of May, but the place has already been comprehensively stripped. In fact, I couldn't make out which unit in the strip mall had been Happy Frog without walking from one end to the other and looking at the interior setups. In the event it turned out to be the leftmost unit on the main row of storefronts.

The walk was rather instructive as it appears that most of the units in this strip have never been occupied by anything, and are awaiting interior finishing touches specific to whoever finally moves in. Given that the Food Lion anchoring the development has been open since 2008, this seems a bit disappointing (though the Food Lion itself is very nice and seems busy).

(Hat tip to commenter Eddie)

This storefront, caty-cornered from the Harbison Barnes & Noble, was originally an OfficeMax. When OfficeMax left South Carolina in 2006, Office Depot took the opportunity to take over the space.

As far as I know, Office Depot isn't in any trouble as neither the Two Notch nor Dutch Square stores seem to be closing, but I guess it was a hard sell to get people to brave Harbison traffic for printer paper and paper clips.

Unlike a lot of store closing sales, this one actually had some good bargains. I got an external DVD drive and a USB drive enclosure for a really good price when I went in to check it out.

UPDATE 12 September 2012 -- The place is now a liquication outlet. This seems to be similar to the kind of event sometimes hosted by the Jamil temple where you pay an entrance fee and then look for bargains on electronics and other items. When I went by a week or two ago, the door fee was $5:

UPDATE 1 May 2013 -- It's now Golfsmith: