Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This old school car wash on Harbison actually does have a clear view as it is half way up the hill that descends to Bower Parkway.

I'll admit that I never really noticed it until commenter Homer (and others) mentioned that it was gone. It seems a bit out of place on the current Harbison, where you would expect land to now be too expensive for such uses. Given the owner's retirement message on the sign, I suspect it had been there quite a while.

Personally, I've never seen the attraction of car wash scents. Whenever I forget to say no scent, I end up with watering eyes until I can clear it out again...

(Hat tip to commenter Homer)

UPDATE 14 September 2015 -- As noted by commenter Homer, this place has now been mostly razed:

UPDATE 14 March 2016 -- As noted in the comments, now open as Del Taco:

The new location:

Yoghut moved into the old Quiznos location next to Barnes & Nobel in 2011 and stayed there until B&N closed.

Now they are in the process of moving across the plaza to a suite next to the Outback Steakhouse. I guess I can understand that their foot traffic in the old location would be greatly reduced with the closure of B&N, but it seems to me that the last thing people coming out of Outback are interested in is more food..

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Well, it's old news now, but Sears at Columbiana Centre is closing, and today was the first time I was able to get out that way to get some shots. I'm going ahead with a pretty-well-in-advance closing to give us a landing page to talk about it, and because it's pretty big news. Hopfully I will get inside shots for an update at some point. Certainly the pre-printed closeout signs in these exterior shots are pretty familiar to us all by now (blurry or not..).

It appears that Belk will be taking over some, though not all of this space.

Frankly, given how hollowed-out the Columbia Mall store is at this point, I expected it to go first.

UPDATE 11 February 2014 -- Here are some interior pix from 9 February:

UPDATE 29 Februayr 2020: Add tags, address, map icon.

I don't play any course that doesn't have a windmill on it, but some folks do.

Edwin Watts Golf is more or less at the bottom of the hill going down Harbison from Saint Andrews Road, almost at the intersection with Bower, and they are currently in the process of selling to the bare walls.

(Hat tip to commenter John Barrs)

Office supply store Staples has moved their Harbison branch from 281 Park Terrace Drive to 320 Harbison Boulevard.

And none too soon!

(Hat tips to commenters Andrew & William)

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Well, if you were reading Columbia Closings Saturday, you'll have noticed that commenter wanda scooped The State by two days on the closing of the Harbison Barnes & Noble.

I'll have to say that this closing is a bit of a surprise to me as this B&N is still open for their standard hours, and always seemed to me to have a pretty good crowd -- I certainly thought that the Richland Mall store, with its already abbreviated hours and declining location would close first.

Of course, though they are still open until 10 and 11pm, you can still see the industry changes that are reshaping the retail (and especially book) market. At this point, Barnes & Noble is sort of an upscale toy store that sells some books. I have to admit that aside from comic strip collections and reference books, I have mostly used this store for show-rooming and coffee these last two years since I got a Kindle. (And while I *can* load BN.com books into the kindle with Calibre, realistically I'm going to end up buying the books I showroom from Amazon..).

Still, over they years, I've bought hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of books from this store, sipped countless lattes and browsed many magazines -- I'll be sorry to see it go.

The State story implies they will be open through the holidays as apparently the lease, which they have decided not to renew, runs out with the year.

What does this mean for Richland Mall? Well, I hope to be wrong, but if this store can't make it, I fail to see how they can continue much longer there either, especially with the closing of TGI Friday's.

(Hat tip to commenter wanda)

UPDATE 26 January 2014 -- Here are some pix from 12 January 2014:

UPDATE 12 February: The windows are now unblocked, and you can see the interior again as shown in these pix from 9 February 2014:

UPDATE 17 June 2014 -- Work on the remodel has started:

UPDATE 15 June 2023: Adding Map icon.

For some reason I've never really warmed up to McAlister's. I think that is probably due to the negative synergy of three factors: 1) They don't have booths, and the chairs are not comfortable, and 2) they don't have table service, but 3) you still can't refill your own drink.

Be that as it may, nobody is sitting at this one for a while, as it caught fire early on the 25th.

When I went by, I could definitely smell smoke as I stepped into the patio area. In contrast to a number of other places that have caught fire though, work started on recovery almost immediately, and equipment is already in place to rehabilitate the building. The "closed for renovation" sign suggests that there might be an upfit involved as well, but I tend to think that's just boiler-plate phrasing.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

11 September 2012: Updated status to "open again"

UPDATE 3 February 2014 -- Finally here's a picture of the refurbished store in operation:

Well, if all you read is The State, you wouldn't have known until today that Books-A-Million on Harbison is closed.

On the other hand, if you read Columbia Closings you would have found out that from commenter TahoeChic last Tuesday, and would have learned from commenter Larry last Wednesday that it is to become a used book store.

I've always thought this was a bad location for BAM as it pits a second-tier book store directly against the number one book store sitting within sight of it (and in a better plaza). Certainly for myself, I will rarely hit a BAM if Barnes & Noble is an option. It's just a nicer store in almost every way. (Even BAM cafe coffee and cookies are noticably below the B&N standard). That said, I have stoped at this BAM quite a few times over the years. My impression is that it was the *deepest* bookstore I was ever in -- It seemed to take half an hour to walk back to the magazine rack in the rear.

I'm not sure how their 2nd & Charles concept will work out. The story in The State makes it sound a little different from your standard used book store, but it also sounds like more sizzle than steak. I'm not sure there is any way to compete against Amazon in this arena, and I especially can't imagine they would get the kind of profit that would support such a huge floor space. I wish them luck.

These pictures were taken on Sunday 28 April, and as I went to try and get through-the-glass shots, I saw that there were people inside working on the remodel, so they are apparently serious about getting the conversion done quickly. (And in consequence, I did not get those shots).

(Hat tip to commenter TahoeChic)

UPDATE 5 June 2013 -- The place claims it will open this month:

UPDATE 12 July 2013 -- As mentioned in the comments, 2nd & Charles is now open:

UPDATE 3 February 2026: Update tags & add map icon.

As detailed here, on 11 December 2012, Mattress Firm bought out Mattress Source and all the Mattress Source stores were closed temporarily for re-branding.

I missed the buyout news, not being in the mattress market currently, but noticed the new banner over the old marquee when I was driving down Harbison recently. Since I don't have a dog in the fight, I'll say that I like the name Mattress Firm better than Mattress Source as it works (presumably intentionally) as a play on words.

I'll also say that while I have no opinion yea or nay on their mattresses, I continue to admire the Tempurpedic logo.

You wouldn't think that you could get away with plastering a shapely undraped female derriere all over your marquee and front yard, but they do. Granted they have toned down the, um, cleavage from a few years ago:

UPDATE 19 September 2022 -- As mentioned in the comments, the building has come down. Also there seems to be a lot of land clearing behind the old site as well:

Also updating tags and adding map icon.

UPDATE 7 October 2022 -- Here are a few shots from the start of the teardown:

A. C. Moore was the follow-on operation to the old Harbison Bi-Lo. I never went in, but had the feeling from the name that it was probably something like Hobby Lobby. Late last year they for some reason lost their lease and had to vacate the premises. They started a sale and clearance program almost immediately, and it appears to have been successful based on how little is left inside...

I find it curious that they were let go as the plaza is not completely sold, and it will take a special store to get shoppers to brave the traffic and make it a destination, something that that apparently did not apply to the grocery store.

I thought I had some daylight pix of the store after the closing was announced, but they seem pretty well hidden at the moment.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

UPDATE 3 February 2026: Update tags & add map icon.