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The Crate, Two Notch Road: Aug 2008   5 comments

Posted at 6:50 pm in Uncategorized

Whatever exactly it is that they sell at The Crate, they'll not be selling it much longer. This place is on Two Notch more or less across from the Big Lots plaza, and is, I think, a pretty bad location for retail. Unless you're specifically going there, by the time you see any of the places in there, you're past the whole strip, and there's no easy way to get back. I'm vaguely aware of having seen their sign driving by that way before, but if it made any impression on me, I suppose I figured in the back of my mind that it was some sort of "organizer" store, one of those places that sells boxes, bins and other miracles of storage so that you can get all your stuff off of the couch in the "junk room" and actually put up. Or it could be WW-I bi-planes. Anyway, on actually stopping to take these pictures, it looked more like a clothes store, which I find rather less interesting than either of the alternatives..

Written by ted on August 17th, 2008

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OfficeMax, 10204-A Two Notch Road: 2006   12 comments

Posted at 8:33 pm in Uncategorized

I've written before about OfficeMax pulling out of the Columbia market. I had forgotten that they had the store on Two Notch as well as the one on Bush River Road until I drove by and saw that a new tenant was going in.

I don't have any problem with a Haloween store, per se. I don't know that it's happening as much around here, but in some places at least, Haloween is becoming quite the big adult party holiday. I remember spending one Haloween in DC, and taking the Metro to Dupont Circle for supper. Now, I won't say the escalator into the Dupont Circle station is long, but I will say that after you're on it for a while, you expect to see an Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here sign. Of course, what goes down also comes up, and being on that escalator behind 20-somethings costumed as naughty nurses and "wicked" witches is, um, inspiring.

So, anyway, I'm fine with a Haloween store, but I do have to cavil a bit about the timing. I mean, come on Haloween is the last day of October -- that's two and a half months from now! If you're in the mood to pick out a Haloween costume now, you're probably one of those annoying folks who already have all your Christmas cards written..

And oddly enough, this was the second Haloween store I saw today. There's one setting up on US-1 out near I-26 as well!

"I got a rock".

UPDATE 11 March 2011: Updated the closing date based on the comments. Also added full street address.

Written by ted on August 16th, 2008

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Taco Cid, 2444 Decker Boulevard: 1990s   27 comments

Posted at 6:41 pm in closing

Taco Cid is a local (a fact I didn't know until just now) Mexican fast-food chain. Well, I say chain but from their web site, they are down to one location, on the Charleston Highway, at present.

When I first became aware of them, they had at least three locations. The one on Charleston Highway, one on Broad River Road near Intersection Center, and this one, on Decker Boulevard just up from Decker Mall. At that time, I was just starting to sample Mexican food, and I was never a steady customer, but I had this odd custom that whenever I was going to drive to Charlotte (usually for the Heroes Convention, but sometimes for other reasons), I would hit the Decker Taco Cid for lunch first (I will rarely start any voluntary trip before noon!). I'm not sure exactly why this was. The food was better than Taco Bell, but not spectacular, and before the Completion of I-77 to Percival, Taco Cid really wasn't on the way to Charlotte in any meaningful fashion. Even now that connection is tenuous since you can only get on I-77 going the wrong way if you use Decker, but I would drive down Decker to Parklane to 277 and tell myself that made sense.

The Decker location was the first to close though it predated the total collapse that happened to Decker later. The Broad river location lasted years longer. I don't know exactly when it went under, but I don't think it has been more than 5 years ago.

The vet's office moved in a few years after Taco Cid vacated the building, and has been a steady presence there ever since as Kroger, Target, The Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and most recently Zorba's have crashed and burned around them.

UPDATE 15 Aug 2009: Added scans of Taco Cid matchbook provided by commenter Melanie.

UPDATE 18 April 2013: The building is to be Atlantic Seafood.

UPDATE 30 August 2022: Updating tags, adding map icon.

Written by ted on August 15th, 2008

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Commercial Bank &Trust / First Citizens Bank, 5210 Trenholm Road (Forest Lake Shopping Center): 1980s   2 comments

Posted at 10:21 pm in closing

I'm not entirely sure of the details, but when I was growing up, my parents had two different banks. I suppose they had each had accounts before getting married, and decided to keep them, or perhaps there were different banks for checking and for savings (the family definitely had passbook accounts at Standard Savings & Loan). At any rate, First Citizens at Forest Lake seemed to be the one my mother stopped at most often to cash checks when in the car with us kids.

From time to time, she would go inside (and perforce drag us with her), but usually she would go through the drive-through, which we always looked forward to since the teller would usually pass out a sucker to each of us along with my mother's cash.

This particular branch of First Citizens was a bit unusual in that the drive-throughs were staffed seperately from the main building. As you can see, there was a little outbuilding by the drive-through lanes. I doubt very much that it was plumbed; I imagine the tellers had to make a trip back to the main building when nature called. Of course in those days bankers' hours were short enough that it probably wasn't a big issue.

I think the lane that was on the side of the building facing Trenholm was a drive-through as well and would have been staffed from the main building, but if I recall correctly, it was harder to get in and out of (and it may have been simply a night depository lane rather than a real teller window).

My memory on timings is always very suspect, but I think this branch closed before the main part of Forest Lake Shopping Center (with Campbell's Drugs etc) was torn down and a new First Citizens was built there, so that there was a period whn First Citizens didn't have a branch in the neighborhood.

I'm a little hazy on what happened after the bank left. I think there were a few tenants in the building before the current arrangements gelled, but I'm not sure. At any rate, I think the current clients have been there for at least the last ten years: A gallery and frame shop in the "main" building, and a garden shop in the outbuilding, teller lanes and the rest of the exterior.

I was a little surprised that the garden shop made it, as I would have guessed that that space was really to constricted to work with, but they have really prospered. I suppose the closure of Forest Lake Garden Center around where the Lazy Boy store now is opened up the area for a new store. I've been to the garden shop a few times (this spring for a pair of gloves, last year for some mint plants), but I've never been in the gallery. I like art galleries, but I always have the feeling that if one is small enough that I'll be the only person in there other than the proprietor, I'll feel like I need to buy something..

Oh, and that Flood Hazard Area sign?

They weren't kidding:

UPDATE 19 October 2013 -- Just found out the original name of this place was Commercial Bank & Trust so I have added that to the post title. Here's a picture of it in operation from 1964.

UPDATE 30 September 2016 -- The main bank building (except for the vault) was razed on 28-29 September 2016. See pictures here.

UPDATE 20 October 2022: Fixing street address, updating tags and adding map icon.

Manhatten Bagel / Holey Dough Cafe, 4840 Forest Drive (Trenholm Plaza) / 1200 Main Street suite 102: 2008   7 comments

Posted at 4:53 pm in Uncategorized

The Holey Dough Cafe started out as Manhatten Bagel and had been a fixture in Trenholm Plaza for probably around 20 years. In our family, whenever we faced an early-morning out-of-town trip, the saying was This is a bagel situation, and we would fuel up with bagels and coffee (or soft drinks) on the way to the Interstate. I used to go in there frequently on early Saturday afternoons as well, and there were always the same two customers there, very elderly men whom the staff took care to see got in and out of the store OK.

In 2006, the store dropped it's Manhatten Bagel affiliation. I'm not sure why. Perhaps given how well established the place was, the national name cost too much without providing enough extra value. At any rate, they changed the name to "Holey Dough Cafe" and redid all the signage (including that on the bagel van) and menus. I couldn't tell any difference in the bagels; they still seemed quite good to me.

In recent months, I had become aware that the store was opening a new branch downtown somewhere. I'm still not sure of the exact location, but I would see sidewalk signs near Gervais & Main. I presume, and hope, the new store continues after the main store's closure.

I suspect the proximate cause of the Trenholm store's closing is the ongoing renovation of the Plaza, which will involve tearing down that whole wing of stores. (The Oreck store is primed to move to the Piggly Wiggly plaza). As to why not just move it a bit up or down Forest Drive, I think the recent opening of Bruegger's Bagels across from The Happy Bookseller has changed the local bagel market. An established store could tough it out, but a new location would have to fight for mindshare with Brueggers.

Roadtrips won't be the same.

UPDATE 2 November 2009: When Holey Dough moved from Trenholm Plaza, it set up shop at 1200 Main Street suite 102. I'm not sure how long it was there, but it was certainly less than a year. Jumpin' Jacks Giant Jersey Subs now occupies the spot.

UPDATE 11 Jan 2010: Added "Manhatten Bagel" and full Forest Drive Street address to post title.

Written by ted on August 13th, 2008

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Cat & Cleaver / Capitol Cafe, 1202 Main Street: 2008   17 comments

Posted at 6:16 pm in Uncategorized

Columbia is full of little restaurants I've never visited, and The Capitol Cafe was yet another one of these. I keep telling myself I'm going to eat on Main eventually, but somehow I never get around to it. I remember in particular I how I kept meaning to go to The Frog & Brasierre and didn't before it went under. I say the same thing about the new place in that spot, The Whig, but I haven't made that one yet either. I haven't even made it to Drake's, and that one's been there (or at least on Main) since forever!

The State (in an article made difficult to google because they consistently misspell it as Capital instead of Capitol Cafe) says it will become a Dunkin' Donuts as does commenter Becca who liked the place.

I have nothing against Dunkin' Donuts, but I still say we need a Krispy Kreme on this side of the river.

UPDATE 2 November 2009: Well, Dunkin' has put up their marquee, but seems to be in no hurry at all to finish the interior and open the place.

Also added Cat & Cleaver to the post title.

Written by ted on August 12th, 2008

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Parisian, Richland Mall: early 2000s   18 comments

Posted at 6:33 pm in Uncategorized

You'll Never Pay More at Parisian

Well, that's true, I suppose, though not in the way they hoped.

The decline of Richland Mall happened mostly while I was living out of town (though still spending quite a bit of time here). I think the first phase: The tearing down of most of the un-enclosed mall, and the renaming it to Richland Fashion Mall may have happened around the time I left for Fayetteville, though I'm a bit fuzzy on that. I do know that quite a bit of the brou-ha-ha justifying the Fashion part of the new name was inducing Parisian & Bonwit Teller to locate there.

As I think I have mentioned elsewhere, I felt pretty comfortable buying clothes at White's. I felt they were solidly middle-class, and that I could find clothes that wouldn't make me look funny from a staff that wouldn't try to make me feel like an idiot. I wasn't so sure about Parisian. I don't think I ever went in there, but I had the impression that it was something of a frou-frou upscale store, though perhaps less-so than Bonwit Teller. I don't know if that impression was accurate, but perhaps I wasn't the only one who had it because neither store lasted more than a few years. I see from Wikipedia that even if it had hung on, the whole chain was bought by Belk, so I imagine it would have closed anyway after Belk's got White's..

I think Parisian failed before Bonwit Teller and was the initial sign of the impending failure of the mall. I suppose it could have been the other way round -- it's a little hard to say since the BT building remained in use for Black Lion. I do know that nothing else ever used the Parisian space. I wondered a bit about that as I was taking these pictures. It's not good for buildings to remain empty, not only from the morale point of view, but also from the mold, fungus & vermin point of view. It seems to me it would have made sense for the mall owners to let some charity or other set up there rent-free rather than keep such a large space completely dark.

Written by ted on August 11th, 2008

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Back   2 comments

Posted at 1:07 pm in Uncategorized

Well, that was nice!

Normal posting should resume today..

Written by ted on August 11th, 2008

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Off To See The Mermaids ... and other stuff   6 comments

Posted at 5:55 pm in Uncategorized

Well, Phase II of summer vacation starts today, and I'll be out of town for a good little while. I'll try to check things often enough to keep comment-spam to a minimum, and I've got some pictures for updates to various posts I may get around to uploading. I may possibly make a post or two, but realistically -- probably not! Feel free to chat amongst yourselves.

First-time visitors may want to check the alphabetical list of closings or the archives and categories on the right side of your screen.

Written by ted on July 18th, 2008

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Heilig-Meyers Furniture Co / High Point Furniture Gallery, 4721 Forest Drive: 2006-ish   no comments

Posted at 5:51 pm in Uncategorized

I'm pretty sure this place went under before the housing crash, so I guess there was something else going on there. A lot of places go out of business rather quietly, with just some sale signs, but High Point went all-out, with frentic sign-wavers up and down Forest Drive, a tactic that seems rather strange to me. After all, you either need furniture or you don't. It's not really an impulse buy in most cases. Of course I could be wrong since I'm a) not married and b) inherited most of my furniture in the first place.

At any rate, things seem to be happening on this stretch of Forest, so it will be interesting to see how long the place continues to stay vacant.

UPDATE 2 September 2009: It's now a Strobler Home Furnishings store.

UPDATE 8 January 2010: Added full street address to post title.

UPDATE 6 April 2011 -- It seems this store was a Heilig-Meyers before it was High Point. Helig-Meyers went under and closed all their stores in 2001. Here is their Bellsouth ad from the Feb 1997 phonebook:

Written by ted on July 18th, 2008

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