Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This Kmart, accessible from Fort Jackson Boulevard, Devine Street, Crowson Road and Wildcat Road has been there for my entire, remembered, life (it is technically a little younger than I am), and was a place I went many times with my Mother over the years (though probably not as many times as to the Two Notch store). In the beginning, the left side of the Kmart building was occupied by a Big Star grocery and then by an Old America Store. Finally, in the throes of the last good idea the chain had, Kmart converted to a Big-K format store and expanded into the old grocery space. This status-quo lasted a good number of years, but recently there have been signs of malaise like closing and trying to rent out the auto service bays.

I want to like Kmart as I have good childhood memories of the place, but their current strategy seems to be to not have a strategy, other than, perhaps, closing stores when Wal Mart opens nearby. Now, I'm not saying I know what a successful stragegy for them would be, but good heavens, they have to try *something*! Go 24 hours, get Martha Stewart back, co-brand with The Food Channel, open in-store bowling alleys -- something!

And hire some staff, yes, that's expensive, but if you're in a "bet the company" situation (and you are, whether you think of it that way or not) you've got to make shopping easy. The last time I stopped at this store, I was in a bit of a hurry and found my item quickly, but it was in a locked display case with nobody in the department. The staff I could find in other departments were very friendly, but couldn't leave their area and nobody ever showed up who could make the sale before I had to go -- so they didn't make that sale, and I'm not sure they can afford to not make sales.

Anyway, as of Memorial Day, the place was not completely picked clean and still had some reasonable looking bargins. I noticed in particular, that if you need some alkaline batteries, now is the time to get your "Die Hard" AAA, AA 9V & Cs (didn't see any Ds).

UPDATE 6 June 2012 -- And, it's gone!

UPDATE 11 June 2012 -- Pix from 7 June. The Devine Street roadside sign is gone, and the marquee sign is about to go:

UPDATE 14 June 2012: Added full 7 June 2012 photoset.

UPDATE 20 June 2012 -- As these pictures from 8 June show, all the signage is now gone (also added full 8 June photoset below):

Photosets:

Photoset 7 June 2012

Photoset 8 June 2012

UPDATE 7 October 2019: Add map icon, update tags.

M Boutique on Devine Street has closed its doors in preparation for a move to the new Whole Foods complex.

Of course that shopping center isn't anywhere near ready to occupy:

so the new location isn't scheduled to open until October, meaning that there will be no revenue coming in for 4+ months -- it seems very odd timing.

(Hat tip to commenter Mary Douglass)

From Forest Acres, it's easier to get to downtown Camden than to Lake Carolina, and in fact, I have only been there once before. My previous visit was at night, so I saw a bit more of the commercial area today. My impressions are that a) it's a nice safe seeming place where kids draw hop-scotch diagrams on the sidewalks and that b) it's hurting like everywhere else. I certainly could not describe the place as bustling, and there seemed to be a number of vacancies.

New York Butcher Shop & Grille is an upstate company with locations in SC, NC, GA & AL. From this State story from the restaurant's opening in 2010, it sounds a nice place, with enough down-to-earth fare (giant burgers..) that I might have been tempted to check it out (if I had ever heard of it, and if I were willing to fight my way to Lake Carolina..).

(Hat tip to commenter Jason)

I'm afraid I'm well past prom age, so I wasn't really aware of this little formal-wear shop in the plaza which houses the Forest Acres location of D's Wings until I saw the storefront empty the other night.

Dazzles is listed in this year's (February 2012) phonebook, so the closing seems to be fairly recent. I wonder if the economy is cutting into prom spending -- it certainly has affected everything else.

UPDATE 21 May 2012: Commenter Larry notes that Dazzles has moved to Boozer Shopping Center, so I have added "moved" to the post title.

UPDATE 2 June 2012 -- Here is their new Boozer Shopping Center location:

I'm not when this Bi-Lo closed, but it's listed in the February 1997 phonebook and was gone by the mid 2000s. Actually, I'm not entirely sure it closed, as the Bi-Lo on Saint Andrews Road is fairly new -- perhaps it relocated to there.

It was apparently replaced by two stores, an A C Moore craft store in most of the space, and Total Wine in the rest.

There has been a fair bit of churn in this plaza (which fronts on both Harbison and Columbiana). Over the years I've featured Computer Renaissance, and Gold's Gym, but there are a number I never got around to.

UPDATE 20 May 2012: Added the store number and exact closing date to the post title based on information from commenters Andrew & Irmojeff.

This Charity thrift store was in the same building as The Southern Skillet just one space to the right (north). I know very little about this place other than that it was listed in the February 2011 phonebook, but not the February 2012, so I'm assuming it closed last year.

UPDATE 4 June 2012: Updated closing date from "2011" to "August 2011" based on commenter Andrew's research.

Garden Place Plaza is the strip mall at the south west corner of Two Notch Road and O'Neil Court, and has featured here at least twice before as both end anchors (Floor It Now & Beds Plus) closed.

Now computer store PC Corner (which was *not* in a corner spot.. ) has joined them, and fairly recently I think, as it was listed in this year's (February 2012) phonebook.

UPDATE 13 May 2012 -- Commenter Terry sends in this 1994 receipt for a top-of-the-line PC Corner system. Hey Terry, I think you can let that receipt go now -- I'm pretty sure the warranty has expired!

Sportings goods store Todd & Moore has been a fixture on O'Neil Court for seemingly as long as I can remember. It's not a place I've ever been in because, well, to say I'm not sports oriented is perhaps to understate the matter, but believe my mother got the one tennis racket I ever owned (wooden, with a wooden press) from here, or from some Todd & Moore location at any rate.

Here is the original State article announcing the protracted closing of the O'Neil Court store, which started in January, as seen in the first couple of pictures below (taken on a rainy night) and finished up in late March.

Yes, there are too many pictures -- I'm a sucker for clouds. Also notice that the New Balance marquee got taken down at some point.

Read the rest of this entry »

I was driving down Millwood the other day and noticed that most of this strip mall at the corner of Millwood and Woodrow is vacant. The place doesn't appear to have an overall name, but I like the old-style A&P steeple in the middle.

I was never entirely sure whether this store in a corner of Trenholm Plaza next to the old Radio Shack location was LA Bag Lady as in Los Angeles or La Bag Lady as in kind of French. Their site uses the "La" capitalization, but goes on to namecheck L.A., so I'm still not entirely sure. At any rate, it was never a matter of prime importance to me as handbags are way down on the list of things I pay attention to.

Interestingly, all the phonebooks I have access to at home list only the Sandhill location for the shop, but this one definitely existed until very recently, as you can see in the picture at the top of Eden's Trenholm Plaza site page.

(Hat tip to commenter mamarose)

UPDATE 9 May 2012 -- Here are some pictures I dug up from Trenholm Plaza's redevelopment back in 2008. They are from 2 July and 5 September of that year: