Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I like to eat lunch at the Schlotzsky's on the corner of Parklane and O'Neil Court sometimes, and the last time I was there, I noticed that several of the suites in the little corner strip it occupies were vacant. You would think that it's a visible high-traffic location, but I guess being near Columbia Mall isn't the draw it used to be.

If you click through to the large version of the picture, you can tell that there was originally some other writing between "G.G's" and "Flowers", but I can't make out what it would have been. I'm putting 2009 as the closing date here, but honestly I can't recall if I ever saw the place open or not. I guess florists don't really impinge much on my attention.

UPDATE 26 Feb 2011: Changed the title to give the full shop name "G.G's Artistry In Flowers" given in the comments, and in the main marquee for the Corner Shoppes of Parklane, which I somehow totally missed when I took the initial picture above. Here it is:

UPDATE 28 March 2011 -- It's now a We Buy Gold place:

I noticed this empty storefront in Cedar Terrace a while back while taking pictures for a closing on the adjacent Fred's. These sort of addresses are a bit of a problem to google because there isn't a standard representation. Is it "6420P Garners Ferry Road", "6420 Garners Ferry Road Suite P", "6420 Garners Ferry Road #P", or something else? Given that I have no personal memory at all as to what may have been here, I tried googling all of those.

It appears that the place was World Gym at one time, and then on 11 December 2007 there was a zoning hearing to zone the place for a bingo parlor. From the structure of the zoning minutes, that was expected to be approved, so I'll guess it did happen.

I also expect that the bingo operation followed the gym, because if you look at the back wall in these pictures, the last place in there had a smoking section and a concession stand, which would be pretty odd for a gym.

If you order by midnight Sunday, you can still get your 2010 Columbia Closings Wall Calendar by Christmas with permium shipping. Of course if you just need it by the New Year, you still have plenty of time with regular shipping.

I'm also pleased to say that I've gotten my copy of the 2010 Pawleys Island Wall Calendar too, and I think it turned out pretty well.

You're going to need a calendar anyway, why not one of these?

Here's another old-style Taco Bell that has moved to a new location (739 Knox Abbott Drive in this case) with drive-through capabilities and the new-style chain architecture. There is still an old-style one on Decker Boulevard (though I believe it already has a drive-through) but the ones on Devine Street and Broad River Road are gone and/or moved.

This is really too many pictures, but I like these buildings, and I like clouds. The last picture is of their new location, which is several blocks towards the river.

UPDATE 24 Sep 2010 -- As noted by commenter Jamie, the building has been re-painted, and there has been some work to convert it to a Wata Wing, but that seems to have stalled:

I've always been a little surprised that the Tempur-Pedic logo got approved and widely used. Of course there's nothing racy about someone just getting a good-night's sleep, but that someone is undeniably a lady, and one with a rather shapely derriere not overburdened with clothing. I see in fact that the Tempur-Pedic company itself now seems to have moved to a logo with less, um, cleavage.

For some reason or other, Two Notch Road seems to have dozens of mattress stores. It now has one less as this Beds Plus store at Two Notch & O'Neil Court is gone. In fact, as I drove by tonight I saw that the next tenant has already moved in, but it was dark and raining, so I didn't quite catch what it was.

This Sprint cellular store is, or was, in the same little strip on Forest Drive more or less across from the movies that also recently lost Ela's European Market & Deli. I have a bit of a soft spot for Sprint, though I've never used them for anything other than a phonecard, because back in the day they used to do some interesting programming projects. My employer worked R&D contracts with them a number of times, and that led to me spending a good many weeks in Overland Park Kansas, which aside from maybe Seoul, is the coldest place I have ever been. I remember one project there where when I drove past a bank on the way to Sprint in the morning, it was -5F and when I drove back to the hotel after work it was +5F. I was also in the room once when the then president of Sprint took a call from Donald Trump who was checking to see if Sprint could handle the call-in volume for his Miss Universe pageant. At some point after that, Sprint cut out most of their R&D and became an off-the-rack operation though I doubt that had much to do with why this store closed..

UPDATE 1 Oct 2010 -- This Sprint store (and Ela's Deli next door) are now part of a 24-hour fitness center.

This Food Lion in Airport Square at the intersection of Airport Boulevard and The Charleston Highway, was open as recently as 3 March 2009 when they posted a want ad for a sales manager.

I posted a number of closings in this general area lately, though not all of them actually happened lately. On the whole I think its fair to say the business climate is not good there. I'm not super familiar with the local stores, but I'm drawing a blank on a grocery store closer to here than the Bi-Lo in Parkland Plaza, which is a fair drive down Knox Abbott. I guess there's the Wal-Mart and Bi-Lo on US-1, but that's about the same distance.

UPDATE 4 Feb 2011 -- It's now a "Save A Lot" grocery store. I went in the one in Aiken once and didn't see any brands I had heard of..

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 7 Feb 2011: Updated the post title with a more precise closing date based on the comments.

UPDATE 13 January 2021: Update tags, add map icon.

Well, I suppose it's a bit of a cheat to do a closing for an event that will repeat this weekend, but hey, it's a closing for the 11 December viewing date only.

If you can make it to the coast this weekend (17th, 18th or 19th) the show is well worth your time. The gardens are lit as you see, and there are singers, bagpipers, food and drink.

I took my tripod with me this year, set the aperture to f2.0, the ISO to 80 and let the camera set whatever exposure it liked. Often it worked quite well, other times not so much (these are some of the ones I think did OK). The long exposures mean you can see blurs for people walking by in some pictures. It was supposed to be much warmer on the 12th than the 11th, but it was also supposed to rain, so I went out on the colder night. It wasn't too bad except when I was trying to feel the little buttons on the camera and could not find them at all in some cases!

It's all pictures after the jump.

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While going out towards Sumter to cut a tree recently, I noticed that the Ole Timey Meat Market on Garners Ferry Road (opposite the new Walgreens) is gone.

I have to admit that I've never been in an actual "butcher shop" -- we always got our meat from the supermarket growing up and inasmuch as I have any concept of a butcher, it would be Alice's boyfriend on The Brady Bunch.

I believe there is still an Ole Timey Meat Market open on Saint Andrews Road.

UPDATE 31 December 2009: It turns out this location has not closed but has moved to Rosewood Drive (see the comments).

UPDATE 16 August 2017 -- Now a pawn shop:

Here's another recession casualty, one of several recent ones on Fernandina Road. I don't know much about boats or RVs, but I know it takes a lot of money to run either, even though gas prices have come down a little.

It appears the site and contents were auctioned on 21 November 2009:

BUSINESS LIQUIDATION AUCTION

SATURDAY - NOVEMBER 21, 2009 - 9:00 AM

COMPLETE LIQUIDATION OF TRUCKS, TRACTORS, SHOP EQUIPMENT, BOATING & RV PARTS & SUPPLIES, OFFICE FURNITURE, & RELATED ITEMS

(I would not expect that link to work more than a few months).

The site appears to be fairly large and it will be interesting to see what goes in there next.