Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well, it's official, Cromer's has made the move from Huger to North Main. I was in this, Huger Street, location once several years ago to purchase a helium baloon kit, and it seemed fairly nice to me -- certainly better than the Bluff Road location I was at for the same reason several years before.

I tried to get some pictures of the new location, but the ongoing road construction on North Main had a steam shovel completely blocking the entrance to the new building -- the tenants can't have been too happy about that. For that reason, I can't confirm that there are no monkeys. You'll have to check yourself.

UPDATE 30 October 2023 -- Updating tags and adding map icon.

I noticed this empty Food Fare north of the Wal-Mart on Dutch Fork Road today. I'm not actually sure of the closing date, but it hasn't been closed long enough to be completely stripped inside or for the pumps to either be taken up or vandalized yet long enough for the carwash to have been tagged. I'm just going to say '2017' unless someone knows different.

I don't know what the issue for it was, but I do note that it's a little hard to get in and out of as the suicide lane goes away at this point in Dutch Fork and traffic can be pretty heavy.

I noticed last weekend that this old-school used appliance store at the corner of Two Notch and McFadden was closed. Kind of a shame because the old stuff was better made than the new stuff in many cases.

Havertys recently moved their Colonial Life Boulevard store to Harbison. I think the move added a bit of size to that store, and perhaps they think one larger store is enough, but whatever the reason, the Two Notch Road store near the I-20 interchange in Dentsville is now closing.

As a side note, the old Ramada Inn property almost directly across the street remains vacant after almost eight years..

(Hat tip to commenter Mike)

Yesternight Distilery moved into the old Abolute Discount Mattress space on 11 February 2017 according to commenter James R, having relocated from the The Old Mill after being gutted by the flood of 2015. It seems to me that over the last several years, I have seen a number of "Moonshine" stores open, something I had never seen before that. I don't know if there was some sort of law change that made it easier, or if it is just one of those retail trends. At any rate, Yesternight is now closed, though they apparently are still looking into reopening elsewhere.

I noticed something about this property when I looked for the address. It shares the street number "4884" with the small strip mall containing Lexington Pawn & Gun. I had always assumed they were separate properties, but apparently not.

(Hat tip to commener James R)

Well, a number of people have mentioned this place recently, and for that matter going back a good while, but for some reason, I just recently got around to visiting. It's quite a large and interesting property that is currently going to pot. I see from the real estate sign and LoopNet listing that it *is* on the market, but for whatever reason, it doesn't seem to be moving. Maybe $2,000,000 is just too much, though as I said it is a big property.

As nearly as I can tell based on this Facebook page, Hampton closed at some point between December 2013 and February 2014. In fact, we can corroborate with the Internet Wayback Machine, noting that the Hampton web site was up on 24 December 2013 and gone by 22 February 2014. (As an aside, it seems that phonebooks are less and less help for this sort of thing lately. For some reason the current Feb 2017 phonebook still has an active listing for Hampton..)

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As mentioned by commenter Justin, and documented in this sale notice here, Hannah Piano in Seven Oaks Shopping Center is closing after 42 years as the owners are retiring.

The Liquidation Sale will offer new and used pianos of all sizes, finishes, and price ranges, digital pianos and all print music. Deep discounts will be offered over the coming weeks and the store will close their doors when everything is sold.

Unfortunately, the keyboard under my fingers now is the only kind I ever had an affinity for..

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 23 March 2018 -- The closeout is over and the place is now closed:

As mentioned in the comments by several people, Burlington Coat Factory is closing their Columbia Mall store to relocate to a newly built building at Village At Sandhill. The final sale has now started.

Burlington occupied the first floor of the former Columbia Mall J C Penny location after Penny's itself moved to Sandhill (I don't appear to have done a closing for that for some reason). The second floor was never repurposed and remains vacant. This move will leave that side of the mall without any semblance of an anchor store. In fact, all of the former anchors, save for Macy's are now gone, and Macy's as a chain is having its problems as well. The idea has recently been mooted for Richland County to buy the whole property for offices. I don't know -- I think at this point, razing the buildings, plowing the parking lot and planting trees might be the way to go. Charlton Heston could ride through on a horse..

UPDATE 7 February 2018 -- Here is the new Sandhill building (not yet occupied):

UPDATE 18 June 2024 -- There is some kind of construction happening at the old Burlington. I suppose it's related to the county buying the mall, but I haven't heard anything specific about it:

Also added map icon, and updated post title from "Moving" to "Moved", and gave the mall street address instead of just "Columbia Mall".

Rose Bud was the follow on operation in this location to Kiddie Korner. Possibly at some point in between, it was also Ectax Services. I don't actually know when Rose Bud closed, but Kiddie Korner was about 2009, and when I took these pictures in November 2017, it looked to have been vacant for a while.

RealtyTrac says the building was built in 1958, which I can believe looking at it.

Rose Bud was behind (or in front of, depending on your point of view) Pizza Man and as commenter Andrew notes both those buildings have now been razed.

As reported by commenter James R, Mattress Man is no longer in this Sunset Boulevard strip mall. Prestige Appliance moved out of that suite in October of 2014, and it was empty for a while after that.

I just noticed, looking at the strip marquee, that the Mattress Man mascot is, in fact, a "Mattress Man", or as the late George Carlin might have said, He's a mattress, man..

(Hat tip to commenter James R)