Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This storefront, caty-cornered from the Harbison Barnes & Noble, was originally an OfficeMax. When OfficeMax left South Carolina in 2006, Office Depot took the opportunity to take over the space.

As far as I know, Office Depot isn't in any trouble as neither the Two Notch nor Dutch Square stores seem to be closing, but I guess it was a hard sell to get people to brave Harbison traffic for printer paper and paper clips.

Unlike a lot of store closing sales, this one actually had some good bargains. I got an external DVD drive and a USB drive enclosure for a really good price when I went in to check it out.

UPDATE 12 September 2012 -- The place is now a liquication outlet. This seems to be similar to the kind of event sometimes hosted by the Jamil temple where you pay an entrance fee and then look for bargains on electronics and other items. When I went by a week or two ago, the door fee was $5:

UPDATE 1 May 2013 -- It's now Golfsmith:

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.

(The pictures aren't that great -- I was shooting ISO 3200, when I could have gotten by with 1600 or even 800).

The State says that this Abercrombie & Fitch in Columbiana Mall shuttered on 14 January 2012 as part of a bad-economy driven process that has already closed the King Street store in Charleston, and will close the Greenville store this weekend (28 January 2012). [The Myrtle Beach store in Coastal Grand Mall will remain open for now].

A&F is not a store I've ever entered, though I was pretty sure they sell clothes, and a glance at their web site confirms that. The only association I have with the name is an old joke/shaggy-dog-story that I heard parts of in the 70s that ended with

You can call me X, you can call me Y, but you doesn't has to call me Abercrombie!

Apparently the mall will make good this loss when a store called Love Culture opens this summer. This is another clothing store, but apparently for women only. The current tagline on their site

On the hunt for cute clothes!

and the two somewhat campy, retro graphics suggest a fairly young demo.

I don't know how I suffered this mental lapse, but somehow I convinced myself that on the day after Christmas, the Christmas rush would be over, and it would once more be safe to hit the Harbison area. Bad call!

I came up Harbison from Saint Andrews Road, and that wasn't so bad. Neither was getting into the circle for Columbiana Centre. Getting out was the hard part. It took me half an hour to merge into the counterclockwise outbound traffic and work my way to the Columbiana Drive exit. In between arriving and leaving, the mall itself was as packed as I've ever seen any mall. I guess I have been "spoiled" by the nearly empty expanses of Richland Mall, Columbia Mall and Dutch Square. I guess that makes Columbiana Centre Columbia's success story, but it doesn't make me want to go there again any time soon..

At any rate, Payless Shoe Source were in their final few days and were selling everything down to the store fixtures in preparation for clothing store Forever 21 to expand into their spot. In years past, it's always seemed to me that shoe stores are the most over-representated category in malls, but perhaps that's now changing.

UPDATE 27 February 2019: Add tags and map icon.

(Hat tip to commenter Dustin)

Here's another vacancy at The Shops At Columbiana Crossing. This one seems to have happened in 2009, and as far as I can tell, Sosi did not move elsewhere.

I find it a little curious that this strip does not seem to update either the storefront marquees or their road-side sign...

Well, it's back to the Shops At Columbiana Crossing today. From their web site Fleet Feet Sports appears to be an athletic shoe and running wear store, which pretty much rules it out as a place I would ever visit, but they had quite a nice little space in this Columbiana Drive storefront. I particularly like the curvy wood (or faux wood) flooring and the somewhat canted counter.

In late September they relocated, fleetly, but probably not on foot, to a much larger space at 945 Lake Murray Boulevard next to Bruegger's.

I've written here before about The Shops At Columbiana Crossing though not by name. It's a fairly new strip mall behind Columbiana Mall, and when it showed up here before, it was for D's Wings.

Great Wraps was several suites north of D's in a much smaller space. I've never really tried a "wrap" (other than burritos, I suppose), but I don't think it would be for me as bread is a big part of the sandwich experience. Nonetheless they seem very popular lately, though in this case, perhaps not enough so to brave Harbison area traffic.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

LifeWay is a commercial outreach of the Southern Baptist Convention and their stores sell Bibles and church supplies. This one moved from the Barnes & Noble plaza on Harbison to Bower Parkway sometime in the 2000s. I know it's been more than a year ago as the first picture is from October 2010.

The little corner area where LifeWay was is kind of interesting as it has sort of an entrance corridor set off by a rather snazzy, filigreed girder. On the downside, being in the corner means that people have to park farther away from your store than most other stores in the strip.

After being vacant for a good while, the suite is finally re-opening as Anna's Linens

UPDATE 11 November 2011: Updated the moving date in the post title from "2000s" to "May 2010" based on commenter Andrew's research.

This little smoothie cafe was tucked away in a corner of Columbiana Station off of Bower Parkway near Wild Wing. I can't say I ever noticed it before as I don't get there too often, and am not a big fan of smoothies anway. It's right next to Hobbytown USA which seems to be undergoing.. something as well.

(Hat tip to commenter Ellen)

UPDATE 6 November 2012 -- As noted in the comments, they are open again at 150B Harbison Blvd.

UPDATE 29 November 2012 -- Here is their new location: