Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Apart from all the conspiracy theories, apparently the ubiquitious Mattress Firm just thought that Nothing succeeds like excess. It's not always a terrible business model. For instance, if you see two Circle K stores located across from each other, the thought is that This is a busy intersection, and *somebody* is going to put a gas station across from us to catch cars going the other way -- it might as well be *us*.

It can be more problematic for something like mattresses, which aren't a convenience purchase, or as the Houston Chronicle puts it:

Why store-on-every-corner strategy didn’t work for Mattress Firm:

Mattress Firm, as it gobbled up rivals and tripled its store count to more than 3,300 locations, seemed to have a storefront on every block — sometimes two storefronts. In its quest to become the biggest player in the $15 billion U.S. bedding industry, it pursued a strategy of clustering shops close together with the aim of crowding out competition.

It didn’t work.

The Houston retailer said as much when it filed for bankruptcy Friday, acknowledging that it operates too many stores and plans to shutter as many as 700 locations as it tries to get out from under $3.2 billion in debt through its Chapter 11 filing, which allows companies to restructure operations and finances while protecting them from creditors.

“I think they’re humbled,” said Seth Basham, an analyst with Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities. “They grew far too fast with ambitions to be a national retailer.”

The Wall Street Journal has some more details including that the crisis is a world wide one in some sense:

The bankruptcy marks a rapid fall for the once high-flying bedding retailer and Steinhoff, the South Africa-based retail conglomerate that has been called “Africa’s IKEA.” Steinhoff, whose purchase of Mattress Firm marked its entry into the U.S. market, has been caught up in an accounting scandal that erupted in December. Its creditors, who hold billions of dollars of the company’s bonds, agreed to suspend all payments on its debt for three years. Steinhoff is expected to launch a debt restructuring for its European business in the U.K. later this month.

Commenter Andrew supplies a link that lists the South Carolina stores affected (so far). For the record, they are:

This particular store is next to Jimmy Johns, more or less near the top of the Harbison hill going towards Saint Andrews Road. As of yet, they have not posted any closing signage.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 7 November 2018 -- Here you can see (poorly) that the store has been cleaned out:

As mentioned several times in Have Your Say, the Chili's on Harbison has closed.

The story from Palmetto Weekend says they were unable to renew their lease, which argues that Harbison Court may already have something else planned.

I believe they were already winding down last week, as I went by at 10pm on Friday night, and they had already turned off the front facade lights by the time I drove around to that side of the building.

I used to go to Chili's fairly frequently, and still do like it, but my main reason was that it was a decent place that stayed open late every night. While they still do that in the Florida locations (or the ones I've visited), they no longer do that here, pretty much leaving that niche to Applebee's.

(Hat tip to commenter ED)

UPDATE 17 April 2019 -- You can see the signage for The Krab Hut now:

Nothing Held Back

Well, continuing the story from the Toys 'Я' Us post, this is the same thing but in a more advanced stage. The Babies "Я" Us closeout sale has been going since February and is now in the end stages, if this WLTX story is still current.

One thing I didn't mention in the Toys closing is that both business units share a common problem on top of everything else: The US, other Western nations and Japan are currently in a "baby bust" situation. That means even if they could regain their former appeal to the customer base, the customer base itself is shrinking, or as the Four Seasons once said Bye, Bye, Baby, Goodbye!

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew I think)

UPDATE 15 June 2023 -- Now Hobby Lobby:

Also adding map icon.

I noticed on my last trip to Columbiana to get a picture of the American Deli setup that across the food court, Nestle Toll House cafe was closed.

I don't think they are doing a revamp as the one at Sandhill did as they are no longer listed on the mall web site. It's been a while since I've stopped at at Toll House, but my experience has always been that the cookies are quite good.

This has already been discussed, but Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse has closed on Harbison. This store opened in 2012 and replaced Rugged Warehouse (interesting that both names contain Warehouse) which closed in 2010.

As you can see in the final picture, Harbison Court will not lack for shoe stores due to this closing as the adjacent storefront (which was at one time Regency Beauty Institute, though I'm not sure that was the most recent tenant) is being upfitted to become Shoe Carnival.

As mentioned several times in Have Your Say, the Burger King at Columbiana Mall is closed "temporarily". There's not any explanation on the sign making that claim, and apparently it has been several months. Ordinarily after such a length of time, I might write off the sign as wishful thinking, but in this case the equipment clearly has not been stripped, so who knows.

Almost as soon as I got inside to take this picture, somebody pulled the fire alarm, and everybody headed for the exits.

(Hat tip to commenter Deb)

UPDATE 9 October 2017 -- As mentioned in the comments this spot is setting up to be an American Deli so I'm taking the "temporary" off the post title:

UPDATE 6 February 2019: Change the location from "Columbiana Mall" to "Columbiana Centre". Add location icon.

Yoghut moved from its original location near the old Barnes & Noble in early 2014. The new location was on the other side of the plaza, just to the left of Outback.

As you can see from these (mixed) Yelp reviews, it was open until at least 1 July 2017. There is no sign on the door, so I assume that they have now closed rather than again relocating.

The Main & Blossom location is still open.

(Hat tip to commenter Michellle A)

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I think there was, or is, a Williams Sonoma on King Street in Charleston, and every now and then when I was in town and walking the shops district, I would drop in to see all the neat stuff that would never fit into my non-cooking lifestyle. I think I may have browsed this store too once, though my visits to Columbiana Mall are passing rare.

According to The State this was not a surprise closing, at least to mall management. They also mention that the Market Commons store in Myrtle Beach was closing as well. I'm unsure if that says more about Williams Sonoma or Market Commons which has struggled in recent years. Normally if a company is in trouble there will be some press about it, but all I see is a Motley Fool article citing a stock price fall.

According to the linked State article about the storefront

there’s a plan in place for what we hope to be a huge surprise in 2018

On the one hand, that sounds upbeat, on the other hand, 1 year+ is a long time for a slot to stay empty.

It was the 70s I guess when I first heard of The Limited, as they had a very catchy radio commercial whose refrain was

Look to The Limited!

That aside, I thought the name a little odd. I guess they were going for an "upscale" Limited as in "Limited Edition", but to me the name always brought up associations like "No, we don't have that, we're limited". Not that it really impinged on me either way as it was all women's clothes and I don't believe I ever set foot in any location.

This shop, at Columbiana closed in early January as part of the chain's axing of all its stores. Forbes has the story:

And another bites the dust.

Women's apparel chain The Limited on Sunday [8 January 2017] began closing all 250 of its stores across the United States and is slashing 4,000 jobs, the latest casualty of shopping's move online and the growth of fast fashion chains.

Interestingly, the article does not specifically say the chain is actually in bankruptcy of any chapter..