Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This closing was first mooted back in 2020, I think, with Lidl speculated to be the next tenant. In the event, the owners of this Piggly Wiggly had time remaining on their lease and elected not to go anywhere.

Now the lease has ended, and apparently the property owners did not want to renew. This store, often called The Social Pig because Shandon neighbors often ran into each other here closed on 28 March.

This location is not particularly close to me, so I did not stop in that often over the years, but the few times I did, it was fine, and I got what I needed.

It's unclear to me whether Lidl is in fact moving in, but for now probably the Food Lion at Devine & Fort Jackon Boulevard is probably the closest non-specialty grocery.

You can read about the closing here & here, and the store's farewell message is on their Facebook along with the note that store fixtures are to be sold off on 15 April.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry & co)

UPDATE 28 April 2025 -- Thanks to commenter Jack Roberts for these shots!

I think Old Chicago has a decent pizza, and here in Columbia it has the advantage of being a decent place regularly open late. About the only negative thing I have to say is that they can't settle on a garlic bread appetizer. They have gone through three or four iterations in the last several years. Anyway, this Murrells Inlet location was not open late as consistently as the Vista one, as is typical for Grand Strand restaurants in the off seaosns, but nonetheless I ate there a good number of times over the last several years.

It was a new store, replacing another bar whose name escapes me, and which was completely razed to put up this building, but in the end it didn't last that long. I noticed in December driving by that it did not appear to be open when I would expect it to be, and finally a stop verified that it was gone.

The Sun News had the story here, saying that 30 November was the last night.

The follow-on is now open -- Bohemian Bull Tavern and Beer Garden:

I would have guess this Walgreens, next to Piggie Park, was in Cayce but Google claims it is in fact West Columbia. At any rate it looks to be a newer store, built as a Walgreens and not inherited from Eckerds or Rite Aid.

According to commenter Mr. Bill, this place closed on 17 March, and the sign was down and the place basically empty when I drove by on the night of 20 March. Commenter Lavender says the building is to be demolished, which may be the only way to get rid of a Red Box, which still seemed to be plugged in & running.

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Bill)

This Dollar General at the corner of Taylor & Barnwell streets had actually closed once before, on a temporary basis. In September of 2023, they apparently experienced severe staffing issues, and the store was closed for a number of days. After working through that, they are now caught up in the chain's downsizing as it sheds a number of, largely urban, stores. The Post & Courier has the story.

According to that article, the store will be open until 25 April, but it was already looking pretty picked over when I stopped by on the night of 20 March, more than a month out.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

Here's another Jo-Ann location closing

This one is in the old A&P building and next to the old La Fiesta.

There's already a Planet Fitness in Parkland Plaza, so we'll just have to see what happens here.

UPDATE 1 April 2025: Changed the closing date to May 2025 from April 2025 based on the comments.

We talked about the GameStop on Broad River Road last month. I suspect this one in Garners Ferry Crossing probably closed about the same time. You can see that it was still there when Great Clips posted their 31 December 2024 closing sign, but it is definitely gone (and all the signage stripped) now.

As far as I can tell, the one at Woodhill is still open though.

(Hat tip to commenter Jason)

I ran across these pictures from 21 February 2010 showing the old two building City Market & Eccentricities Books.

Here is a link on the redevelopment of the buildings which are a restaurant and gourmet shop now.

This storefront at 10008 Two Notch has been a number of different restaurants over the past few years. The Baked Potato Factory took over from Good Greens sometime between March 2022 & March 2023.

It's not quite clear when this place closed. Looking at the Google reviews, they had been having trouble meeting their stated hours for a while, but the last reviews are tagged "three months ago", so I am going with January 2025. While I enjoy a baked potato every now and then, I never got around to trying them out, though the reviews also suggest the potatoes were pretty good and amply sized.

There seems to be some confusion online about the exact name of this chain, including whether the leading name is "Jo-Ann", or "Joann", and whether "Fabrics & Crafts" is officially part of the name or not. I went with Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts back in 2010 when this location moved from Garners Ferry Road to here in the Wal-Mart plaza on Two Notch.

The chain went into Chapter 11 back in March of 2024, coming out quickly, but slipped again in January of 2025, with the new owners moving to liquidate. A chain in the process of winding down doesn't have a lot of good-will anyway, but they apprently just lost a bit more in deciding they would no longer honor gift cards. This story lays out some of the details of the ongoing saga. I'm not sure I would toss the word "Beloved" in there, but then I'm not in the target demo.

I'm not sure how I clicked my camera into 1:1 instead of 4:3 mode, but you can definitely see the square photos!

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I took these pictures in mid-May of 2024 and kept meaning to get back out to Red Bank to see that they had closed and what was there now, but in the event I go there so rarely I completely forgot about it. According to commenter Jimmy, they were scheduled to close in May (presumably at the end), and Google confirms that they are now gone.

(Hat tip to commenter Jimmy)