Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This is one of those places that I never did a closing for because I never could tell if it were actually closed. That is to say, it was always closed whenever I would drive by, but it had signage indicating that it was actually open, and there was still stock inside, so maybe it just had odd hours..

Even after the real estate signs went up, there was no definitive indication that the place wasn't being kept open until the building sold.

That said, I don't think there's any question now..

These shots are from 27 June 2015:

These are from 11 December 2015. Notice that none of the stock has been touched in the intervening six months. If I had compared photosets, this would have convinced me that the actual closing preceded the first set:

These are from 2 October 2016 and the place has now been completely cleared out:

It appears to me that this litle gift basket shop in one of the many strip malls on Decker is gone. According to a probably no longer available cached page, it was a mother/daughter operation specializing in gift baskets, trinkets and keep sakes.

The follow-on operation is Superior Scentz.

As above, this BI-LO opened on 15 November 2013, giving them about a three year run after taking over from The Pig.

I don't understand the rationale for closing this particular store, as it seems to have some pretty big plus factors to me. The groceries in this area are Kroger on Forest at Beltline, Trader Joe's at 4516 Forest, Fresh Market and Publix at Trenholm Plaza, and arguably Wal-Mart at Forest & I-77. Of those, Fresh Market and Trader Joe's are upscale specialty stores that are a different market than a general grocery, Publix is cramped and has bad parking, Kroger has bad parking and so-so location, and Wal-Mart .. is Wal-Mart. Against that, this spot has good parking, a large layout, and lots of built-in customers as soon as the re-purposing of Cardinal Newman is complete.

On the other hand, BI-LO is not in the most robost shape, and has presumably thought about all these issues.

At any rate, the sell-off was almost complete when I went in on Saturday 24 September. Remaining were only two endcaps of odd frozen goods, and one shelf of deeply discounted (and not particularly popular) items near the registers. The rest of the store was already a hollow shell.

UPDATE 9 August 2017 -- The teaser sign for Lowes is up on the plaza sign board and the store itself has now been designated a construction area (though I have seen no activity as yet):

UPDATE 31 October 2017 -- As mentioned in the comments, construction for Lowe's has begun, and the building is basically ripped open:

UPDATE 17 February 2018 -- Starting to look like a Lowes:

UPDATE 19 March 2018 -- Shaping up:

UPDATE 25 June 2018 -- Nearly there:

Commenter James R. reports that this little candy storefront in Hope Ferry Center closed on 30 June 2016 with the retirement of the owners. By the time I finally remembered to get over there, I found that the space is already open again, this time as The Classy Cruet a fancy olive oil and vinegar emporium.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I noticed driving back from downtown the other day that Scott Hendley Rugs, on Taylor just down from the tracks, is having a retirement sale. Rugs are one of those things that you either need, or you don't. But if you do, the discount looks pretty good.

Furniture stores are generally kind of invisible to be, so I'm not sure exactly how long Havertys has been across from Dutch Square, but cerainly for decades. Now, like everything else, it is moving to Harbison.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 21 March 2018 -- The Harbision location is now open:

Well, this has already been mentioned in Have Your Say a number of times, but the Aldi on Saint Andrews Road in Irmo has closed for about a month of remodeling.

Frankly I'm not that big a fan of the chain -- I've only been in one once, and it kind of gave me the willies. I felt like a rat in a maze. Some people swear by it though, and this one should be open again on 22 September.

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I'm not sure when this convenience and gas operation on Farrow Road almost at Beltline closed, but it was long enough ago that the gas pumps are already gone and at any rate I can't find it in any of my phonebooks.

I can say however that it was definitely open as late as December 2008 as you can see from the rather odd linked crime report.

You've also gotta love the real estate summary for the location.

UPDATE 26 March 2018 -- Looks like this place is being razed:

I was unsuccessfully trying to find the name of one of the vacant storefonts in this North Main plaza, when I ran into a link showing that corner tenant Silver Dollar Store was closed.

In the event, I had not taken any closeup shots of that suite, because driving by, I could clearly see that at least some of the stock was still inside and so wasn't sure it was gone, hence the long shots. At any rate, from what I can tell, it was a discount store, possibly in the line of those "everything is a dollar" operations.

As far as I can tell East Bay Gourmet was a Charleston area based butcher chain founded in the early 90s which later expanded into Columbia & Wilmington. An old version of their web site is archived here.

Their local operation was apparently in this Two Notch building until around 2013 after moving from 1465 Bella Vista Drive, down the street from the former Studio 54. They are not listed in any location in the current phonebook, and the web site is no longer active, so I believe the whole chain has closed down.