Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well, as we've discussed recently, Blockbuster, at least as a physical store, is on the way out. The parent company, Dish Network is shuttering the chain, basically, due to the rise of Internet video. The last Blockbuster movie rental, 'This Is The End', was on Saturday in Hawaii.

I'm not sure how long the clearance at the remaining stores will go on. It's possible this Irmo store is already closed, as these pictures were taken a week ago now, and I haven't been back by. This location joins a long list of Columbia area Blockbusters which have featured here. And Rosewood will be up as soon as I get the chance to get some pictures there.

UPDATE 26 January 2014 -- Well, that's it, as seen in this pix from 12 Jan:

UPDATE 12 February 2016 - As mentioned in the comments, this whole store has now been subdivided and re-purposed:

UPDATE 5 October 2020: Change name in post title from "Blockbuster" to "Blockbuster Video". Update tags, add map icon. Changing closing date from "Real Soon Now" to December 2013.

Beltline Auto Brokers certainly wasn't the first operation in this sort of sprawling building on Beltline just past the old Kim's Beauty, but it is the most recent.

Interestingly, I am not able to locate a listing in the phonebooks I have at home to say when it closed. Also interestingly, surprisingly few businesses have "Beltline" in their name.

This little Barber & hair and nail salon sits in a strip mall almost at the intersection Decker and Faraway.

I like those old style spinning barber poles, though you never actually seem them spin anymore.

UPDATE 15 September 2021: Adding tags & map icon.

Unless I am missing the entry somehow, this storefront busness center to the right of Food Lion in the strip mall at the corner of Pine Belt & Two Notch Roads seems to have opened and closed without being listed in a yearly phonebook.

The name is a bit vague, but I believe they offered impromptu meeting and office space and services.

Here's another Wilson Boulevard location. I have no real idea what this was, but noticed as I was driving down the street that the old parking lot for *something* is now being used as an impromptu 18-wheeler pull-off.

The shape of the sign seems vaguely familiar, but I can't really come up with anything concrete, and there is currently no street address posted that I could query.

I have noticed this old fashioned little house across Broad River Road from Boozer Shopping Center off and on over the years, and have suspected for a while that Ethel's Uniforms was closed, something I recently verified by stopping by, and finally remembering to check the phonebook. It seems to me that the place may have closed earler than 2012, but it is listed up to that point, so that's what I'm going with.

This property valuation suggests that the house was built in 1930, and that sounds about right from the look of it. There are lots of old houses like this on Broad River road, and it's hard to imagine the rural setting they must have been built in. Looking at the listed owner of the property, suggests that the original "Ethel" may have sadly passed away though I hope that is not the case.

The real estate sign and this LoopNet listing suggests the Ethel's building may be part of the surrounding strip mall property.

After eating at Moe's last week, I noticed that Universal Copies in the little bi-level University Corner strip-mall, is closed and papered up.

Then, when I went to make this post, I looked back on the University Corner post and realized that I had missed the closing of the place before Universal: Bits & Pizzas.

North Main Street becomes Wilson Boulevard as it heads out to Blythewood, though perhaps more to the point here, it is also US-21. I noticed this defunct little plaza on the South side of Wilson at the corner with Pisgah Church Road this weekend. There are no numbers on the buildings, but a bit of web searching suggests that this property is 8400 Wilson Boulevard (and is much more extensive than the two buildings in the plaza).

The only business name that comes up is Armstrong Equipment Company which looks to have been a trucking firm, and would, I guess, be somewhere else on the 4 acres. As for the plaza itself, to me the two buildings appear to have been a bar and convenience store.

This Loopnet listing shows the whole property, with the plaza area listed as "under contract". This property valuation seems to be for a home somewhere on the property, but you have to admire the lake name given in the accompanying graphic.

UPDATE 29 October: From the comments, it appears that one of these was a seafood restaurant in the 80s and also one was a bar called Timex Socal Club and Club Rolex so I have added those to "N-21 Plaza" in the post title.