Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This little convenience store on Two Notch just up from Cedar Printing has been vacant for a good while now. I believe it was connected with the adjacent ABC store. The strip as a whole is called R & D Plaza and it is one of several little retail strips on this part of Two Notch.

The web site is still up, but it appears that fashion botique Rags & Bags With Style in the Food Lion / Rite Aid plaza on Decker is now gone.

I like the "look" of this plaza, which has a bit of a retro feel, probably because it actually is retro.

Well, learn something new every day. Googling this western and urban wear outlet on Decker yields the information that El Rey Leon, means The Lion King, something that make total sense once you stop to look at it closely.

Of course that just raises the further question as to how that phrase is supposed to suggest western wear, and the secondary question as to whether I should alphabetize this one under El or Rey. (Hmm, I see the phonebook uses 'El', so that's good enough for me..).

Well, this developed rather suddenly today. Commenter skysguy reported this early in the morning, and commenter Mr. Bo supplied this official link this evening: Belk's in Dutch Square is closing.

The chain is pitching it as doubling down on their Columbiana location, especially after getting extra space in the former Sears. However, they have had extra space in the Dutch Square store for *years*, and I believe if they had thought that store was viable, they could have re-opened the closed off spooky third floor (empty now except the hair salon and mens' room):

This closing pretty much puts the fork in the "mall" part of Dutch Square, and I would not be at all surprised to see the theater and Burlington closing their doors to the interior. (Office Depot already lacks interior access).

(Hat tip to commenter skysguy)

UPDATE 24 December 2014 -- All of the closing signage is up, and the store is half empty. If you want to buy some racks, step ladders, office chairs or nude mannequins, now's your chance. I'm not surprised fixtures aren't returnable, but I did find it a bit curious that regular merchandise is not returnable either, given we still have two local Belk's.

19 December 2014:

UPDATE 4 February 2015 -- The closure is complete:

UPDATE 10 September 2015 -- Interestingly, the building still isn't quite cleaned out:

UPDATE 7 November 2015 -- Here's a closing ad in The State:

UPDATE 10 April 2019 -- As mentioned in the comments, this is now a Planet Fitness:

Also adding map icon,updating tags and changing Belks to Belk in the post title.

You can sort of see Lane Bryant in operation at the Shoppes At Woodhill if you click-through and peer behind the trees in the first shot.

Judging from the 2014 phonebook, where they still list this location, this shop must have departed in the first part of the year. I've been over there several times to eat at Ci-Ci's, but I just can't remember as my eyes automatically skip over clothing stores. I was a bit surprised to see that this wing of the plaza has a Pelham Drive address, I would have expected all the buildings to piggyback off the Garners Ferry number used by the Panera wing.

Provisions opened in September 2013 and was a bulk food and spices store that also carried locally grown or produced foods. I admit that when it opened, I read the articles and couldn't see it lasting for long as it sought to serve a market I didn't believe existed. Of course I would have been happy to be wrong, but in the event they seem to have closed down sometime in the spring of 2014 -- I can verify that they were still open in February.

Five Rivers Market a small SC chain will be opening in the spot soon if they have not yet done so.

What with the recent talk here about Family Dollar closings and the ongoing buyout war over the chain, this store in Greelyville caught my eye as I was going to the beach back in July, and then again with the building vacant as I was going for Labor Day.

I don't know a lot about Greelyville except that one of my childhood babysitters was from there and that I have been driving through it for years. From the 60 through the 80s, the local high school always had some sort of clever message on their roadside marquee-board, but they seem to have gone generic lately. During the same time period, one of the local gas stations had cylindrical above ground gas storage tanks painted to resemble soft drink cans. The place was also home to one of the unfortunate sailors who lost his life in the huge gun explosion on the USS Stark in 1987, and is memorialized on a roadside plaque. There is also the marvelously named "Pearl Whack Park" on US-521 just before the tracks.

And on 29 August 2014, I saw one of the best rainbows ever driving through the area, unfortunately with nowhere to pull off and get a really scenic framing for a shot.

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:

As usual, when I'm trying to shoot against the sun, the results aren't pretty, but this Piggly Wiggly on the Charleston Highway near the I-77/I-26 interchange is on the way out -- in fact, it may actually be closed at this point.

When I took these shots on 3 August 2014, the store was mostly still in full operation. There were a few signs that they were trying to sell off the whole stock, but really, if you had gone for most any normal grocery item, you would have found it and the discounts were pretty modest (I believe most signs said 20%, but only to Pig cardmembers).

With this closure, I'm not quite sure where the nearest replacement store is. There's an IGA in Gaston, but the Reid's which would have been the nearest store in the other direction recently closed as well.

Of course, the new State Farmers' Market is quite nearby for adventurous souls.

UPDATE 21 August 2014 -- The place is now closed:

UPDATE 14 December 2021 -- After seven years, this store is still vacant:

Also adding a map icon.

Commenter Justin pointed out this old style, stepped facade roof, grocery on Gregg Street just down the hill from Gervais. I believe I have rendered the names correctly -- Gregg Street Groceries obviously came after, and overwrote, M. H. Baxley's Groceries. This sort of neighboorhood grocery used to be pretty common, but has now been mostly replaced with convenience stores on the one hand and supermarkets on the other. Now, the Five Points Food Lion is very convenient to this location by car, but back in the day, it would have been a long walk to Eden's.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)