Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This is the little strip at Shoppes At Woodhill which has seen Radio Shack and Qdoba leave and Chipolte and Starbucks arrive. In one of the pictures I took for Qdoba, I can see that this little wine shop originally had another name, but I can't quite make it out. At any rate, they are now closing and running their final sale.

(Hat tip to my sister)

I'm not sure what this little building in Landmark Square was originally, possibly one of those tiny hamburger drive-throughs that sprung up in the late 80s, but for a number of years it was what I thought of as The Elephant Ear place; I didn't know it was called J's Concessions until I did a google on the address.

The idea seems sound to me: People like "fair food", so why not open a permanent location for it? (They also had a food truck that used this as a base). Somehow I always end up only having Italian Sausage at the Fair; I probably should have stopped by.

Judging by the newspapers and Christmas lights, they closed up shop after the holidays.

After Trevin mentioned that this place was closing, I drove over and got some pictures while it was still open.. and of course now can't find them: The first picture above is actually from the Lane Bryant closing.

At any rate, I used to eat here about once a week while I worked off of Bluff Road. I didn't eat the pizza because pizza for lunch tends to shut down my brain for the rest of the day, but I would get the salad bar and some garlic bread. Shoney's probably had a better salad bar, but given my very limited time for lunch, I couldn't deal with possible delays in getting the ticket, and Cici's was self-serve and perfectly adequate. I also liked the fact that they always had a survey on the the ticket for $2.00 off next time if you filled it out. That covered the drink.

Not sure what the closing circumstances were. As far as I could tell, the place did a pretty good business, and in fact while I was taking these pictures, two different cars drove by, clearly looking to eat.

(Hat tip to commenter Trevin)

UPDATE 27 April 2016 -- Here are the pix from 12 April 2016 that I couldn't find before:

UPDATE 20 July 2016 -- Mod Pizza is open, but in the suite to the right of Cici's:

This Shoney's on Garners Ferry Road is closed for remodeling. I used to eat there now and again when I worked out on Bluff Road. It was a typical Shoney's with a decent salad bar and burgers. I'm not sure exactly what the remodel will entail. Newer Shoney's stores are bigger and boxier, but it doesn't look yet like they plan to tear down the existing building.

(Hat tip to commenter Kenneth)

UPDATE 2 May 2016 -- As reported in the comments, this place is open again:

UPDATE 10 September 2020: As reported by commenter Thomas, this place is closed again:

The chain has been in trouble for years now, and we have lost a number of locations in the Columbia area. Apprently the stress of COVID-19 combined with marginal sales anyway were enough to close this branch down, at least until people head back to restaurants in greater numbers.

Well, it's been all over the news, but this is the first Radio Shack I've driven past since the bankruptcy announcement.

This store is in Woodhill strip at the top of the lot, parallel to Garners Ferry. I've actually been inside several times over the last year, once for a AC adaptor, once for some CD-R media and once for something that currently slips my mind. The product mix is now a far cry from the old parts & kits era, or even the TRS-80 era, but still I can't see that another Sprint store is really an improvement.

I was at Panera on Garners Ferry this evening and I noticed that the Marble Slab Creamery has moved across the parking lot from the Cici's wing of the shopping center to the Panera wing. The new location is actually the old Starbucks location which became vacant when Starbucks moved into the old Qdoba location.

This Subway was way out on Garners Ferry in Eastover, next to the Hot Spot. Restaurants are pretty thin on the ground in this area, especially national chains, so I was a bit surprised to hear they had closed, yet not too surprised because customers are pretty spread out as well.

(Hat tip to commenter Gary)

UPDATE 19 February 2016 -- It's now Hot Sub Stop:

UPDATE 17 June 2022 -- Updating tags, and adding a possible closing date and map icon.

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.

Bangkok Thai-Chinese restaurant has moved across Garners Ferry from its old home in the Southern Salvage plaza to the Wal-Mart outparcel plaza. This is the former site of Larry's Subs and Steve's Subs. It was also the site of Japan Grill about which I need to do a closing.

(Hat tip to commenter Badger).

Old:

New:

Starbucks has now moved from its original Woodhill location by Panera Bread down to the corner formerly occupied by Qdoba.

The new location gives it a drive through window, but perhaps more importantly in my view, moves it away from Panera. It has never made much sense to me to have a coffee and pastry shop located... right next to a shop that sells better coffee and pastries in a more comfortable setting. Without the drive-through all they had going for them was staying open a little later.

UPDATE 30 November 2021: Updating tags and adding map icon.