Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Like everyone, I've heard the folksy commercials on 92.1 and other stations, but had no real idea where Chapin Furniture actually was. In the event it's not hard to find as a pretty straight shot from I-26.

The State has the story of this move: Apparently Publix has bought this lot, and Chapin Furniture is building a new two-story store elsewhere which should be open in the fall of 2015.

Commenter James notes that the larger part of this Sunset Boulevard building is now for lease.

It appears that this is the result of Good As New Consignments vacating the left suite of the building and consolidating with Good As New Furniture in the right suite.

(Hat tip to commenter James)

UPDATE 15 May 2017 -- As reported in the comments, the main portion of this building is now a distillery:

This Aaron's on US-387 in Lexington just west of the US-1/US-378 split listed in the phonebook as Aaron's Furniture Rental, though clearly judging from the wall blazons, they also did appliances. Given that the South Lake Drive operation already existed, I think this is more a consolidation than a relocation. Basically they have just folded this branch's operations into that one's.

(Hat tip to commenter James)

I'm not exactly sure when this furniture store at the corner of Broad River Road & Means Avenue closed, but I can tell you that it opened on 16 March 2012.

Unless you're buying a house, new furniture is pretty much a post-ponable expense, and houses aren't exactly selling like hotcakes now either -- I think the furniture business has got to be hurting.

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Tomlinson's was the follow-on operation to San Jose Restaurante Mexicano. I'm not sure when it closed, but I did the San Jose post in January of 2010, and I can't find Tomlinson's in either the 2011 or 2012 phonebooks, so I'm guessing 2011 by default. I know I've been down US-1 a few times in the past year, but I can't actually ever recall noticing it before. The red sales-ticket shaped sign is quite nice.

UPDATE 19 August 2016 -- Now Pelican's Snoballs:

UPDATE 10 May 2021: Adding map icon and updating tags.

When The State announced Good Wood's closing back in February, I have to admit that my immediate thought was to wonder what would become of the streetside rocking chair of which I have always been fond. The chair, the gull-wing lights and the cut-out lettering on the Harrison Road fence all give the place a distinctive and appealing look.

The State article is interesting in that it, once again, points to demographic problems for businesses in the Forest Acres area. I suppose I can understand it in the case of a furniture store, as the biggest market for furniture is young families setting up, but it still seems to me that the Richland Mall area ought to be able to tap into the generally financially comfortable suburban residents.

Apparently the store was to close its doors Saturday 2 June, but the closing sale has extended to "Make an offer Monday" on 4 June, so you still have a day left to buy the rocker.

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The end of Kimbrell's on Main Street was hardly a surprise. Their sign says they had been there 49 years (or almost my entire lifetime), but the character of Main Street has changed so much over the years that even blocks where there are signs of life (Kimbrell's was on the same block as the new Mast General Store) don't make sense for heavy retail like furniture. A modern furniture store needs lots of display space, as well as an easy way to get trucks in and out, and Main Street doesn't really have either.

There are a number of other Kimbrell's locations around town, and the signs indicate that operations from the Main Street store have been consolidated in Piggly Wiggly location on Marshall Street.

I hope that whatever happens to the old Main Street store, someone saves the old and classic Kimbrell's sign, though I realize that would be confusing in some cases, it seems to have worked well for the Kress building.

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Looks like someone claimed all the freight after all!

Or they may perhaps have moved to Blythewood. There is a Bargain Warehouse listed there in this year's phonebook.

I wonder what this place was originally? There are three connected units in this small strip at Two Notch and Calvin Drive. The two end units have this odd, rocky facade, while the middle unit does not. Curiously, the Chinese Wing Restaurant on Two Notch at Fontaine Road also has the same sort of facade. I like the touch of yellow here as it makes the place stand out a bit from its neighbors.

UPDATE 30 September 2011: Add picture of roadside sign at top.

Well, I admit I'm drawing a blank here. This building is in the 1200 block of D Avenue in Triangle City (just a bit up and across from the old Goodyear location. Whatever it was, it is, as you can see now, pretty thoroughly gutted.

When I took these pictures, I thought it would be easy to identify when I got home. In the event though, there appears not to be a street number on the building, and my fallback of finding the Grubb & Ellis listing for it, which I thought would be easy given their big sign, fails as well. Google Streetview shows two business storefronts in it, but won't zoom close enough to read the marquees and won't give the right street number. Anyone know? I'll update below and in the post title when I get more information..

UPDATE 20 July 2011:

OK! With help from the comments this building is identified as Fogle's Food City and Furniture Farm. The actuall address of the building is 1212 D Avenue, which is a higher number than I had thought. This LoopNet listing also makes clear that the building is much larger than I had thought with what must have been the main parking lot facing 12th Street. I will have to go back and take pictures of the 12th Street and C Avenue sides of the building.

The Secretary of State's office says that Fogle's Food City, Inc. was incorporated on 2 January 1970 and dissolved on 21 June 1996. Of course it's possible that the actual grocery started before that as a sole proprietorship or some other form of organization. It's also possible that it closed before the corporation was actually dissolved. At any rate, Furniture Farm ("Where Prices Are Born.. Not Raised") was already listed in the February 1997 phonebook. I'm not sure when it closed as my home phonebooks jump from Feb 97 to Feb 07, but it was not listed as of February 2007.

I've changed the post title from "Building" to reflect this information, and have fixed the street address as well. Thanks folks!

UPDATE 17 October 2011: Added Shumpert's to the post title based on info from commenter Becky Dodson.

UPDATE 5 April 2012 -- The place continues to deteriorate and has now been officially condemned. You can see that the roof is completely gone in spots and that the whole place has been flooded during the recent rains (it's a bad sign when your building leaks to the outside rather than the outside leaking into your building..). I also finally got some shots of the other side with the old Furniture Farm signage:

UPDATE 22 April 2012 -- Well, looks like that's it for this building!

UPDATE 7 May 2012 -- All gone: