Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Commenter Tom mentioned that this Irmo Corner Pantry Exxon at the I-26 Peak exit had been torn down for the ongoing road work in the area. By the time I got to the area, there was really nothing left to see, but you can view the old building at this LoopNet listing and by clicking through to old images in Google Streetview.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

I was at the Peak Exit Food Lion off I-26 recently, and noticed that the strip's gym, Anytime Fitness had closed and is transitioning to Hitone Fitness in the near future.

Dougal's was the follow-on operation in the storefront to Fins Aquatic Livestock & Supplies. I don't get out this way often, so I can't say much about it, although it's always nice to find a notary outside the national stores where it always turns out "We don't do those". The specific closing date was given by the owner in a google review post.

It looks like I have previously tagged shops in this plaza as "Woodrow Street", so I need to change all of those to "North Woodrow Street" at some point.

Main Street Home was the follow-on operation in this Broad River Road location to Floor It Now. According to their Facebook page, they moved to the new location at 1711 Lake Murray Boulevard on 24 July 2021. This is shown in the second set of pictures (though they did not come out very well).

I am not sure what is next for this building. Apparently it was listed on LoopNet at one time, but currently does not seem to be there. Commenter Andrew has noticed that some of the adjacent property has been sold, so perhaps something is in the works.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 30 September 2021: Added second picture, above, of the old location with the signage down.

I never got around to eating at this little Mexican place in Seven Oaks Shopping Center as it was really just too far away to be on my radar. Looking at their Facebook, there is a nice little closing note which cites the challenging times and leaves some hope for a phase two sometime in the future.

UPDATE 27 June 2022: Setting up to be By The Fire Pizza:

UPDATE 8 March 2025: Close italics tag.

This little repair shop on Lake Murray Boulevard has obviously been closed for quite a while. Looking at google streetview, it has been up for sale at least since 2018. At that time, there was also a house on the property which has since been razed. It wasn't a big house, and this is a small shop, but the property is apparently quite large, as the current real estate sign advertises 8 acres. With the ongoing buildout up towards the interstate, I expect this semi-rural area will be transformed before too long.

I did not see any sign on the door, and google doesn't know anything about it, but there are no cars on the lot, and the website is down, so I believe commenter Robert is correct that Chris Polson Automotive on Lake Murray Boulevard has closed its doors.

(Hat tip to commenter Robert)

I have never been to either Alodia's, though from looking at their menu once, I decided if I were ever in the right place at the right time, I would like to try it. The Irmo location is a bit removed from what I generally think of as Irmo: Way out on North Lake in the Publix strip mall.

There have certainly been a lot of staffing shortages on the path out of the pandemic. In fact we found one restaurant in Myrtle Beach we were considering going to that said up-front on their web page to expect poor service! Some of that seems to be at issue here, though I am not sure what the "product shortages" would be. The only one I have heard of is chicken wings, which wouldn't be much of an issue for an Italian restaurant (and which would affect the Lexington branch as well, I would think).

Anyway, they are apparently teed up for a July re-opening here, and I certainly hope that comes to pass.

(Hat tip to commenter Ellen)

UPDATE 31 January 2022 -- Open again:

UPDATE 4 October 2023 -- Closed again:

UPDATE 6 March 2024 -- The storefront is now empty and for lease:

Also updated tags.

I have been holding off doing a post on Deno's because it wasn't clear exactly what their status is; however, at this point they are clearly closed for a long-term, if not forever, despite the fact that there is no real-estate sign, and all of the furnishings and equipment are still in the building.

Somehow I had it in my head that Deno's was a seafood restaurant, and so never went. Looking online now, I think I clearly would have liked the place. The last review I see on their Facebook page (which has not updated since 2014) is from February of 2020, so I think clearly COVID-19 was an issue here, and the roadside sign does mention that they were open for takeout for some time into the pandemic.

(Hat tip to commenter Barbara)

UPDATE 17 August 2021 -- The sign has been patched, but not re-logoed:

UPDATE 15 November 2023: Update tags.

This closing was announced so long ago that I have several months-old daylight sets of pictures -- which will turn up eventually. I know I have stopped at this store a number of times over the years, and it was fine, though I did not particularly like coming back out onto Saint Andrews Road going left as I think there is no left arrow at Piney Grove.

In the final event, this is another Bi-Lo destined to be come a Food Lion. This State article, which I have probably linked before, has the details.

I do note that their street sign leaves their product line rather open-ended: "Food &".

(Lots of chatter about this, but I think commenter Andrew gets the hat tip for the closing signs going up).

UPDATE 20 May 2021 -- The Food Lion is up and running now: