Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This little building on Oak Street in the block between Gervais & Senate Streets caught my eye the other day. Although I must have seen it in operation many times riding downtown as a kid, I have absolutely no memory of it. As far as I can tell, there isn't even a street address on it anywhere, so google isn't particularly helpful either. To my eye, it was clearly a store, perhaps a small grocery, at one time.

Looking back at the post I did for the building in front of this on Gervais Street, I would guess from the paint jobs that the two buildings have the same owner.

This little auto lot was at the corner of Airport Boulevard and Glenn Street in Cayce. The full name comes from the 2012 phonebook -- as you can see, the roadside sign stops at International Auto Sales.

To me, it looks as though the garage wing of the building might have been added on after the front part was built, leading me to believe this has not always been a car-related spot.

This thrift shop was at the corner of Beltline and Edison Street just down form the former Kim's Beauty & Variety.

I'm not sure exactly when it closed, but long enough ago that the building is now up for sale.

Teddy Mountain is a stuff-your-own-teddy-bear franchaise. The Columbia store was at The Village At Sandhill next to the Nestle cookie store, and just down from Bluefin.

I'm not entirely sure when the store closed, but as the last mention I can find on the Sandhill website is for 30 April 2012, I'm putting it as "Spring 2012".

This little three suite building on Farrow Road just past SC-277 (headed away from town) was the home of the Short Stop Barber Shop & Hair Styling barber shop and salon on the right side of the building, and Dessie Short Stop III convenience store on the left side of the building and an ABC store in between.

You can still see where the barber pole was mounted on the wall, but the shop closed sometime before the February 2007 phonebook. There is a large gap in the books I have at home, but I can say that it *was* listed in the February 1997 book.

The convience store is not listed in any of my phonebooks, so apparently it went into operation after the Feb 1997 book and closed before the Feb 2007 one. (There is still another Dessie Short Stop at another location). This does not quite jibe with the Richland County business license list, which lists the place as holding business licenses as a convenience store in both 2008 and 2009 although it is consistent with the Columbia Star report of an application for a beer and wine permit in September 2006.

I don't have any information on the Red Dot ABC store in suite 2.

This was the first location for Piggly Wiggly store number 102.

If I have the story straight, then this store closed in 2001, moved and re-opened in the former Harris Teeter at 4350 Saint Andrews Road (and then closed for good).

After that, the Display Center appliance store moved in, and closed on 30 November 2011, leaving an interesting assortment of items behind.

This location is directly across Jamil Road from former Hilltop Restaurant, and in the same plaza as the former Capitol News Stand.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 4 September 2012: Fixed typo in DC closing date.

UPDATE 21 November 2020: Added map icon.

This Dentsville mattress store is listed in the February 2011 phonebook (along with one on Augusta Road), but neither is in the February 2012 phonebook.

Meanwhile, there are lots of spare mattresses at the Ramada Inn.

This little storefront on Saint Andrews Road more or less across from the big industrial plant was in the used software business, presumably mostly games as the text of the (now painted over) marquee is: Software Seconds New & Used Video Games.

Like Labrasca's it has been reported closed before, but this time is definitely the real thing. They are listed in the February 2012 phonebook, so for lack of any better information, I'm just giving the date as 2012.

I don't know about console games, but pretty much anything that runs on a PC platform is pirated out the wazoo on the Internet now, and that puts stores like this one in the same fix as CD stores (and, increasingly, video stores).

UPDATE 27 August 2012 -- The store has moved to 6903 Saint Andrews Road on the other side of Harbison and is still in business.

We've talked about this move in various places here over the past few months, but clothing store Hamrick's has finally made the move from the now totally defunct (for retail) MarketPointe Centre into the old Circuit City building across I-20 at 1950 Bush River Road.

As you can see, construction has already started at the old location to refit it for the expansion of the existing SCDOR offices at MarketPointe.

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