Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Mr. PC has several area locations. This one was on the upper part of Harbison in a little strip housing a Jimmy Johns. Mr. PC itself was around the bottom corner on a lower level and not very visible from the street or parking lot. It was kind of an unpleasant rainy day, so I didn't get out to get any closeup pictures, but you can just about read the logo if you imagine the railings aren't there. In the event I went there with a broken no-name android tablet from one of my neices, but there was no way to get parts for something like that, and she would be better off with something more mainstream.

This building was home to Keller Williams Realty (KW Columbia, SC), who have now moved to 1 Harbison Way.

This LoopNet listing shows the building before demolition and indicates it was built in 2000, so it was not that old. This LoopNet PDF flyer indicates that before the demolition, both this building and the adjacent T-Mobile office at 128 Harbison were for sale. I guess there were no takers for this one.

What is interesting is that they are really basically just one building. There may technically be an additional wall between them, but they are going to have to work carefully to leave the T-Mobile building alone while knocking this one down. I should go back and see how it turned out.

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As far as I can tell, the official way to refer to this parents' chain is buybuy Baby with the two lowercase buys mushed together followed by an uppercase Baby.

Doing a bit of google work turns up surprisingly little about the specific troubles of this sub-brand. The parent company Bed Bath & Beyond, has been hit hard by retail changes in general, and COVID-19 in particular, and has published plans to shut down around 200 underperforming locations. This would leave about 1200 storefronts, so it is by no means an abandonment of the market. CNBC has stories on this here and here. Neither article specifically addresses buybuy Baby though the second one seems to include those locations in with the Bed Bath & Beyond locations.

The company itself is announcing buybuy Baby initiatives with words like renewed and expanding in the text to, at least, give the impression they still have faith in the brand:

'welcome to parenthood' is buybuy BABY's renewed promise to help make the transition to parenthood as seamless as possible and invites all customers into this new community—which is designed to support parents with the guidance and advice that's best for both them and baby.

buybuy BABY's renewed purpose is part of its parent, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., to transform the business around the customer as a digital-first, omni-always retailer. The Company last year introduced digital services such as Buy Online Pickup in Store and Curbside Pickup, along with Same Day Delivery, and continues to innovate to put digital purchases into the hands of buybuy BABY customers even sooner.

Be that as it may, *this* store in the old Circuit City location in Harbison *is* closing, and has started the final sale.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 15 June 2023 -- Apparently setting up to be a Planet Fitness:

This BB&T is on an outparcel of the Total Wine & More shopping center at the intersection of Harbison and Columbiana. I'm not exactly sure when they closed, but the last google review is from November of 2020, so I'm going with "Late 2020" until I hear differently. Although I do not have a BB&T account, I do have their Visa for the tenuous historical reason that a bank chain they once bought had a branch near my apartment in Fayetteville. It's always been well handled, and I don't think I've ever had the occasion to step into one of their branches. I certainly hadn't been to this one.

I believe this brings the number of fairly recent Harbison area bank closings to three, with this one, Region's Bank, and Wells Fargo.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 19 September 2022 -- The building is gone and apparently a carwash is setting up:

UPDATE 26 January 2023 -- The carwash is coming along:

M Kitchen was built on the site of the old Steak 'n Shake after razing that building, and is part of the peripatetic Myio's empire.

As of 27 June 2021, this location is closed, with the staf moving to Bower Parkway

(Hat tip to commenter Mitch)

I don't recall ever eating at a Salsarita's. Moe's has mainly been my go-to for this category, and Qdoba & Chipolte have always disappointed. At any rate, judging by the google reviews, this location closed around March of 2021. It was apparently intended as a temporary thing, but once the signage comes down, I think you can mark it as permaent.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

UPDATE 30 September 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments to become an Uberrito Fresh Mex:

I have to admit I've always thought Regions Bank is a pretty lame name, though it sounded less derivitive after NationsBank reflagged to Bank Of America. That aside, I know nothing about the chain, other than, like most, it is shedding branches.

I got these pictures of the Harbison location back in September -- I'll try to remember to follow-up with some pictures of the vacant building when I'm out there in the daytime again.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 19 September 2022 -- Now Founder's Federal Credit Union:

I did a closing for the Dutch Square Ruby Tuesday back in May. At that time I took pictures of this one, on a Columbiana Mall outparcel, as well. Since, unlike the other, there wasn't any clarity that this one was permanantly closed, I held off doing a post.

I drove back by today however, and nothing has changed. The "temporarily closed" sign is still up, but at this point I suspect that is no longer accurate. At the least, it's worth a mention and if they re-open later great! In the meantime, chalk up another one for for COVID-19.

UPDATE 7 June 2021 -- Razed:

Steam & Ice seems to have been a coffee, smoothie, dessert & milkshake shop. Among other things, they were know for milkshakes topped with cotton-candy (which there is no way I can imagine liking, but your milage may vary), boba-tea, and acai bowls.

From what I can tell, they closed around January of 2020, so before the pandemic. Looking at the reviews, it appears that people liked it when it was open, but that there were ongoing staffing and early closing issues before the shutdown.

Copper River Grill in Harbison is another casualty of the COVID-19 crisis, though it has featured here before in the comments as an example of a place that had gone downhill, and the recent Yelp reviews are not stellar.

Cola Daily has the story on the closing here.

I only visited Copper River Grill once, years ago. I had heard it was a good place for late night pizza, so I hit it around midnight one evening. My memory is that the pizza was OK, nothing special, and that it was quite hard to get my drink refilled. In any event, I never went back.

I do like the entrance-way though.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)