Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

After the Woodhill Automated Post Office closed in January 2010:

Woodhill Storage & Office Centre on the other side of the plaza took up the slack by opening a contract post office.

I noticed while eating lunch at Jimmy John's the other day that several people were getting out of their cars with packages and then getting back in their cars *still* with packages. Checking it out, I found that the USPS marquees have been covered over, and that there are door signs posted to the effect that the contract post office is gone, although the business remains otherwise in full operation.

I would have to google it to be sure, but I think the next closest post office is at Garners Ferry Plaza at the corner of Garners Ferry and Greenlawn.

How can you go under when your product is money? If you look through the Alphabetical Closings, you'll find it's easier than you might think.

While Very's hangs on in this little strip mall on Two Notch near Columbia Mall, very little else does. I believe this suite to the left of Very's may have been a hydroponics store in the fairly recent past, but most recently it was an Internet Sweepstakes operation. I saw enough of them in Florida last year that I finally got curious and checked one out -- As far as gambling goes, it is even more boring than bingo. You pay some money, get a certain number of sweepstakes entries and just hit the button on the machine until all your stake is gone. Apparently here in SC, the memory of the Video Poker era is still strong enough that the powers that be put the quietus on the whole nascent Internet Sweepstakes industry pretty quickly, before most of these places really got into operation.

Of course there's still always Publisher's Clearing House. I think I'm pretty much a shoe-in this time -- I just got a letter informing me that I am guaranteed to be a winner if my entry is selected..

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I have to admit I didn't know there was such a thing as The National Fireplace Institute -- it seems, at least, that all the classrooms should be warm and toasty. At any rate they certified Southeastern Stone,the former tenant of this handsome masonry building on Fernandina Road near the I-26 & Piney Grove interchange. There are some nice pictures on their still extant website as well.

I'm not sure what is going on with the building. It is up for sale, but there is some sort of landscaping work already going on.

This little strip mall chiropractic storefront on the west side of Decker is now empty and fairly recently I think, or at least I believe I would have noticed a banner such as the one out now.

As I was driving Two Notch last night I noticed the roadside sign announcing the imminent closing of this fashion and hair braiding operation in the Arcadia Lakes Shopping Center. Looks like they are having a pretty good sale.

While I was in Springdale last weekend getting some Jewelry Warehouse pictures, I noticed this building set well back from the road. For some reason, perhaps the parking sign for the adjacent business, I expected I would find that it was some sort of lawn & garden store, but a little googling reveals it as the site of several light industrial operations, both in construction and fishing. (Google also claims 3142 is the Springdale Shopping Center, but I think that must be the strip mall on the next lot).

Note the stone facade on the porch of the building. You don't see too much of that anymore.

It seems to me that I recall this place on the corner of Harden and Rosewood being a TV repair place at one time. Certainly Kiddie Korner was far from the first operation there, though to date, it seems to have been the last.