Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well, another day, another Pig. I wasn't even aware there was a place called Red Bank in the Midlands until I started this blog, but there's actually a good bit of commercial activity there near the I-20 intersection. Although now there's a little less..

As commenter Homer mentions, with the closing of this store, the only footprints the chain has left in the area are the North Main Street & Devine Street stores, and with the adding of this closing, I will have, if I am counting correctly, 19 closings for Piggly Wiggly. How have the mighty fallen.

(Hat tip to commenter Jimmy)

UPDATE 12 January 2018: Add store number as found by commenter Andrew to post title.

How have the mighty fallen..

This Dentsville Best Buy across from Columbia Mall used to be my go-to place for quick buys of computer and networking equipment when I had my previous job. It was also a good place for DVDs & CDs, back when those were a thing. Lately I have had much less need to test various networking configurations or throw together new linux & Windows installs, so my visits had become much more rare. I did feel that the merchandise was starting to rattle around in this huge building a bit as they kind of thinned out the inventory. I also felt it was becoming much more common to find unstocked gaps on the shelves where tags indicated your item *should* be, and for finding items which seemed to be completely untagged or priced..

Of course the root cause of all of those symptoms is the ongoing "creative destruction" of retailing as we have known it. It's simply the case now that I will only hit a Best Buy if I need something *today*; otherwise it's Amazon. That said, I'm still surprised they didn't stay open through the holiday shopping season.

Here's The State story announcing the closing.

UPDATE 22 March 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments, this place is being converted into a church:

(Also adding a map icon).

I did a closing on this address when the Jiffy Lube shut down. In retrospect, that seems to have been a harbinger for the whole property. There is a nice little landscape of trees still on the corner, but other than that, pretty much everything else is gone. It is a bit amusing that the roadside coffee banners outlasted the buildings by quite a few days. I suspect probably the crews didn't bother to read them and assumed they belonged to the adjacent Sonic.

No clue yet what is planned for this lot, but it's a fairly valuable Interstate exit corner now, and just across from a successful new shopping/restaurant plaza.

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I blogged the relocation of Prestige Appliance from Sunset Boulevard to Fernandina Road in November 2014 when they moved into the former Fireplace Center.

Around the same time, they were building and opening a new store in Augusta. I'm guessing that they tried to do too much at the same time and got overextended. At any rate, as reported in The Augusta Chronicle, they declared Chapter 7 (simple liquidation) bamkruptcy on 7 September 2017.

I say "simple" liquidation, but apparently it is actually a bit more complicated than that since as you can see here, the merchandise and fleet are still intact at this location.

(Hat tip to commenter John)

UPDATE 15 January 2018 -- Drove by on 13 Jan 2018, and they were having a liquidation:

UPDATE 9 July 2018 -- Not a great picture (shot from I-26), but now Chocolate Factory & Coffee Shoppe:

Queen's Quarters Giftshop on Sunset by JackSon's Southern Kitchen is closing as the owner is retiring. They were closed when I went by on Sunday, but the sale is ongoing, and at 50% off you might well want to check it out. Their Facebook is here.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

Well, this has already been extensively ventilated in Have Your Say, but Shoe Carnival has moved down the hill from Columbiana Station by Old Navy to Harbison Court.

The new location, seen below, is the former home of Regency Beauty Institute (on which I never did a closing) and right next to the previous (and recently departed) shoe store in that complex, Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse.

I believe I went into the Grand Strand location of Apocalypse Comics, which closed last year, a couple of times, but I never made it into this Harbison location. To be truthful, I get most of my comics nowdays from a subscription service which has pretty much curtailed my shop visits.

Here's a nice little write up about the shop in The Daily Gamecock.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

Sara's Produce was the follow-on operation in this spot to Wood Produce. It seems to have had a fairly short run, opening in May or June, and closing probably in August.

The main shed is now empty, but there is a new ice depot.

UPDATE 15 May 2018 -- Well it appears that commenter Carl is correct, and that this business is seasonal. They are now open again:

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.

This old school used book store was on the upper level of the Old Mill on US-1 in Lexington. I stopped by back in May when I was having lunch at the brewpub. They had a nice selection of SF -- I even picked up some A. E. Van Vogt in French. Not that I could read them. At one time I probably had a grade-school understanding, but that's long gone. At any rate though, he always said he was more popular in France than the US because his translations were done by a French poet. They're certainly not exemplary prose in English, but that Van Vogt dream logic pulls you in..

The later pictures are from August.

There is a nice little farewell message on the shop's Facebook Page.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)