Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

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)

This Toyota Tercel station wagon was the only car we ever bought from Toyota Center. Usually we dealt with Dick Dyer since they were a lot closer, but for whatever reason, Toyota Center had the car we wanted at the time we needed it (even then, 5-speeds were getting harder to come by). The car (which we called The Leatherneck based on a title in the detailing) was a bit of a dog, as Toyota never should have put an engine that small in a body that big, but that wasn't Toyota Center's fault, and as I recall they were fine.

This summer they pulled up stakes for both their new and used operations from their longtime Airport Boulevard location, and relocated to US-378/Sunset Boulevard near I-26. I have not yet seen the new location, but judging from nearby billboards they have also changed their name as part of the move.

On Airport Boulevard, the "new" car center was on the west side of the street at 1640 and the "used" car center was on the east at 1645.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have been holding off doing a closing on the Family Dollar on Platt Springs Road because I wanted to get back out there and get some inside pictures before it closed, but for one reason or another, I never did, and it looks iffy at this point, if they are in fact still open.

This closing was announced before the recent big list of Family Dollar store shutterings. I was kind of surprised at that announcement because before that, they had seemed to be a chain on the move, and recently opened a new store on Two Notch. But the same thing happened to Fred's recently -- apparently the smaller discount store market is pretty cut-throat.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Kicks Just Keep Gettin' Harder To Find

The State reports the upcoming closing of Kicks Shoes on Devine after 15 years in business. It seems that the changing retail market for shoes, which includes strong online competition, coupled with the lingering 2007 recession are the main factors.

3 August will be the store's final day.

UPDATE 17 November 2014 -- Now London & Lace:

I have some other pictures of this place with the whole "Blue Ocean" moniker still on the sign if I recall correctly. As soon as I come across them, I'll add them as an update. Anyway, I've noticed for a couple of months that this place on Forest Drive more or less across from the old Bojangles was closed. I wasn't entirely sure it was gone for good though until late June when I noticed a new placard proclaiming that the location would soon be Fish & More. Still sounds fishy to me..

UPDATE 15 July 2014 -- Added the first two pictures above, with the original name still on the sign.

Commenter James reports the closing of Marpie's Antiques & Collectibles on Augusta Road.

This is an interesting location in a building which is shared with Avon and has nice little family plot outside. The peeling marquee sign reveals part of the name of a previous business underneath, but I am unable to make it out. It appears to be

EDS
ector

UPDATE 24 June 2014 -- Here's some pictures of the previous location at 910 Meeting Street:

I've featured this building on Bush River Road across from the new(ish) Wal-Mart, before, but erroneously in a post I still have to sit down and clean up and correct eventually. Hopefully this post will be more correct.

This building was a Food Lion grocery until the 1990s. I'm not sure when it closed, but it is not listed in the February 1997 phonebook, so I'm guessing the mid-1990s. According to commenter Saturday's Child, it was built as a Thrifty Mart around 1969 and then became a Food Town, staying with that chain when they switched their name to Food Lion.

After Food Lion left, it was a UPS call center and an operation called Spherion, possibly not in that order.

For the last several years it has been vacant, but as commenter William points out, the building is now being rehabilitated to become an AutoZone.

(Hat tip to commenter William)

I don't have an address for this old country store, but it is on Bluff Road, I believe somewhere near the National Park. The (Coke provided) sign has obviously been painted over a couple of times. This sort of faux roof-line seems to have been common for stores at one time.