Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I know I took some pictures of this under-awning vacancy at Polo Plaza at least a year ago, possibly longer. In the event, I never could determine what had been there, and so never did a post on it.

I was going to Time Warner Cable in the same plaza the other day and noticed that the two suites were still vacant, so I decided to put it out there and see if anyone remembered what was there last.

The street address is 9810 Two Notch Road, and the two store fronts are designated "9-D" & "10-C" according to the stenciling. I notice however that other references to the plaza use only the suite letters, as in this LoopNet listing

UPDATE 8 July 2012: Commenter Clay identifies this place as a former Gooney Birds and then GB's, so I have changed the post title from "Storefronts" to that. I found that GB's Grill & Bar was listed in the Feb 1997 phonebook, so it was there at least until then. There's a gap in my phonebooks, but it appears that WG's closed in 2007.

UPDATE 9 December 2012: Add Sharee's to the post title based on commenter Natalie's info.

Today's closing takes us back to Garden Place Plaza in Dentsville, to the storefront just east of PC Corner.

First American Cash Advance (or First American Ca$h Advance as the signs have it) was one of Columbia's many payday cash advance operations which feature here pretty frequently. Also a pretty regular feture here is the store marquee, turned around so the store name is not legible, but retained so as to not leave holes (which are both unsightly and let in the weather) in the sign fixtures.

Here is the plaza marquee:

And here is the vacant First American space, photoshopped to turn it rightside up again and enhance it a bit:

Here's the same thing done to the storefront sign:

The address of this place is a bit hard to understand. The adjacent PC Corner spot is 7384 Two Notch. I can see how this slot is 7386, but the "Suite A" doesn't seem to make sense.

Garden Place Plaza is the strip mall at the south west corner of Two Notch Road and O'Neil Court, and has featured here at least twice before as both end anchors (Floor It Now & Beds Plus) closed.

Now computer store PC Corner (which was *not* in a corner spot.. ) has joined them, and fairly recently I think, as it was listed in this year's (February 2012) phonebook.

UPDATE 13 May 2012 -- Commenter Terry sends in this 1994 receipt for a top-of-the-line PC Corner system. Hey Terry, I think you can let that receipt go now -- I'm pretty sure the warranty has expired!

Well, it looks like Video Magic & Mags on Two Notch just before Fontaine has gone under despite (or because of?) their Low Low Rices, and that their Movies For The Entire Family are being cleared out.

This porn emporium has been there seemingly forever, and outlasted the one on the other side of Fontaine by probably a couple of decades.

It appears that a new incarnation for the building will be forthcoming shortly as the parking lot has been re-paved, the sign has already been painted over, and there seems to be a stream of folks in and out working on the interior.

It seems unlikely that this building, which is partly a car wash and partly a barber shop, at 5100 Two Notch road is the one which originally housed China Royal Restaurant, especially as the 1976 yellow pages ad says that they could seat 250 people. It is however at the same address.

It's interesting that this stretch of Two Notch used to have a number of restaurants, including aside from this one The Ranch and Huddle House

UPDATE 26 March 2012 -- Interesting. Commenter Mike says that in fact China Royal was in the same building that also housed The Ranch and is now This Is It! Video on one side and a nightclub on the other:

The address of that building is now 5024 Two Notch Road, and the current asignee of the 5100 address (above) seems to make sense as it comes right as a new block starts..

I noticed the other day that the eastern-most storefront in Tillman's Plaza was empty. I've written about this building before, as it was the last location of The Byte Shop, one of Columbia's first computer stores. The first picture above comes from that closing.

There is a Play It Again Sports on Bower Parkway, but I don't know if it moved from here.

UPDATE 19 July 2012 -- It's now 5 Star Rental Purchase (with a rather "Patrick" looking mascot):

I have written about this building on Two Notch near O'Neil Court before, as an old Esso station.

When I did that closing, I noted that the building was for sale despite being occupied by Go Used Tires. I don't know if they just got tired of living with that Sword of Damocles over their heads or if there is an actual prospective buyer for the property, but Go moved last month to another place I've done a closing on, the old Vintage Motors a mile or so up Two Notch and next to the old Lizard's Thicket / Perkins that's now Hero Korean / Japanese.

There's an interesting little history of CompuZone at their web site. I did not know this, but the store started here in Columbia as The PC Store in 1992, though they eventually ended up with more stores in the Charleston area than here. As far as I know those other stores are still open.

I don't believe I ever shopped at this store though I certainly have bought my share of computer parts. I was living out of town for a good part of the time it was open, and when I got back to town, there was a Best Buy much closer to me. Their site does show some nice looking SATA drives -- eventually I will upgrade and have me some terabytes on this table..

The place has been thoroughly gutted in advance of the next operation, BatteriesPlus moving in. Their sign says they will have lightbulbs as well -- I wonder if they will import some 100W ones (though I stocked up on a enough to last me a good long time!)?

(Hat tip to commenter Badger)

I was driving along Two Notch near Beltline the other day and noticed a For Sale sign in front of Auto Zone, and at first thought that large space had been vacated. In the event it was a much smaller storefront next to Auto Zone in the strip.

As far as I can tell, Grand Divas Hair Salon occupied this address until sometime in 2008 when they moved out to 5350 Farrow Road (where they still are as of the Feb 2012 phonebook).

Carolyn's Flower & Gift Shop was listed on 3306 Millwood Avenue while Grand Divas was here, moved in when they left, and then last year, moved back to Millwood at 2917 1/2 Millwood Avenue (2917½ Millwood Avenue).

The first time I went to Tandoori Grill I recognized one of the staff from the Broad River Road location of Delhi Palace (or I should say he recognized me), and the food was quite good. I went there probably four or five times and it continued good, then I went there a final time, and I didn't think it was good at all, and I don't think the original guy was there anymore.

I was recently passing by during hours when the place should have been open, and noticed the sign wasn't on, so I turned in to check it out. The sign on the door is a bit unclear, but I think the gist of it is that the restaurant became "available" on 15 January 2012.

The little strip that it sits in, Fortune Square has not seen great success in quite a long while (the main store is Big Lots), but that makes it attractive to smaller operations, a number of which have come and gone over the years, including notably La Pizza Cucina.

UPDATE 18 September 2012 -- It's now Kiki's Chicken and Waffles: