Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I had held off posting anything about this church move on Sunset Boulevard because I was never sure if they had already moved, or were continuing to hold services in this building until they were able to sell it. Last month a sign for a new church moving in went up, so I think it is safe to say they have completed their move. Google suggests they now meet at 218 Blackjack Oak Lane.

At any rate, it is a nice large property, one that could hold a couple more buildings, and one where kids could play some nice games of Capture The Flag. I am glad to see that, so far as I can tel, it is not to be broken up for retail.

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Now Cabanas Restaurante with Honduran & Mexican dishes:

Cabanas was the follow-on in this longtime restaurant storefront to La Poblanita, and opened in 2016. I'm not absolutely sure there wasn't another restaurant in between Cabanas and the new tenant, but anyway, as of now this space is occupied by Tacos Locos.

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I believe 2020 is the only South Carolina State Fair i have missed since starting the blog (and I had missed very few before that), so it was nice to get back this year.

There were a number of changes in this year's edition, both major and minor. The major change would have to be that the venerable grandstand, where numerous well known (if not then at their peak draw..) acts have performed over the years is gone. In its place was a circus Big Top tent where a free circus was performing several times daily. I don't know if this is a stopgap, or will be a permanent feature. Also this year, the performance tent generally set up to the left of the corridor leading to the agricultural displays was gone, and in its place was a set of bleachers in front of a space for small outdoor acts. When I was there, there was a torch-throwing duo working. (They had an amusing patter: Hey, maybe this isn't that impressive, but it's better than you coudl do!). To the right of the agricultural corridor, where there generally are bleachers and some sort of animal act like racing pigs, they have turned the orientation 90-degrees witht the bleachers backed up to the corridor and a covered stage up against the art building.. Where the Steel Building (which I still miss) once was, instead of the dinosaur park they have done the past several years, they had a collection of Frontier attractions, including a working glassblower. (Unfortunatey he was on break when I went by -- it's a fascinating thing to watch).

There were a few noticable changes on the Midway as well. Probably the biggest of these was the absence of the Log Flume from its usual spot near the southwest corner. To fill that spot, they moved one of the Bumper Car setups from its usual place on the north corridor. They also moved the junior Bumper Cars from the usual kids' midway to the central corridor. As an aside, it's something of a travesty that armband guests get expedited access to the rides over ticketed guests. When there are only 9 working Bumper Cars, and they fill 6 of them from the expedited line, it's just too much. I have the feeling that some of the fun-house/haunted-house attractions against the back wall were different this year not because I recall the names, but I think some of the carnival artwork I usually try to get pictures of was missing. Finally, the girl sitting in a big lemon selling lemonade at the west terminus of the skyway was gone this year. It's a silly thing, but I liked that lemon.

As far as I could tell, the crowd was of a typical size. I saved a bit of time pre-buying a ticket at Circle-K, but in the end I had to walk back to the car once because they did not like my camera belt carrying case. I think next year I will just stuff the case in my pocket as I go through the gate.

If you have followed these posts, you know what I like, and that hasn't changed. So there is plenty of neon and the usual yearly subjects past the break.

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I admit to being a little confused about the status of this place. I have never seen any cars there, and the Facebook page shows no recent activity. Furthermore, I recently drove by there at 10pm on a Saturday night and everything was dark. But there is no indication on the door that they are out of business, the street sign seems fairly new, and there are recent google reviews.

Can anyone confirm whether they are open or closed?

UPDATE 27 January 2023 -- Initially this post was a request for information as I could never tell if the place were open. (One commenter supplied the tidbit that they did not open before midnight). Now it is a closing, as the shopping center has suffered a fire, centered on this club.

As far as I can tell, the official way to refer to this parents' chain is buybuy Baby with the two lowercase buys mushed together followed by an uppercase Baby.

Doing a bit of google work turns up surprisingly little about the specific troubles of this sub-brand. The parent company Bed Bath & Beyond, has been hit hard by retail changes in general, and COVID-19 in particular, and has published plans to shut down around 200 underperforming locations. This would leave about 1200 storefronts, so it is by no means an abandonment of the market. CNBC has stories on this here and here. Neither article specifically addresses buybuy Baby though the second one seems to include those locations in with the Bed Bath & Beyond locations.

The company itself is announcing buybuy Baby initiatives with words like renewed and expanding in the text to, at least, give the impression they still have faith in the brand:

'welcome to parenthood' is buybuy BABY's renewed promise to help make the transition to parenthood as seamless as possible and invites all customers into this new community—which is designed to support parents with the guidance and advice that's best for both them and baby.

buybuy BABY's renewed purpose is part of its parent, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., to transform the business around the customer as a digital-first, omni-always retailer. The Company last year introduced digital services such as Buy Online Pickup in Store and Curbside Pickup, along with Same Day Delivery, and continues to innovate to put digital purchases into the hands of buybuy BABY customers even sooner.

Be that as it may, *this* store in the old Circuit City location in Harbison *is* closing, and has started the final sale.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 15 June 2023 -- Apparently setting up to be a Planet Fitness:

Moms On Main was the follow-up in this storefront to the relocated Al-Amir, though the building is probably still best remembered for The Elite Epicurean.

An article in ColaDaily pegged Moms to open around New Years of 2020, and I suppose it did, though unfortunately I never got around to going there.

The article quotes some reactions to the forthcoming opening,and I have to show one as it turned out to be so sadly, and badly, wrong for all of us:

“Calling it now, 2020 is going to be a great year for Columbia! I can’t wait to try this spot!!” –@theoverflowfoodblog

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

I don't know much about Graph-Itti except that they a screen-printing and embroidery shop, and had been in this Rosewood location for a good while.

According to their Facebook page, they moved from here to 3620 North Main in August of this year.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

I don't normally grab a lot of pictures that aren't mine and put them up, but in this case they seem to have mainly come from a ".ru" site, so the cork is probably already out of that bottle, and I think it makes an interesting contrast:

I ran across this former Ramada Inn off I-95 exit 157 in Florence a few weeks ago, took a few drive through pictures, drove off, thought about it, and came back for a walk-through.

What I find interesting, apart from the general decrepitness is that the property seems to have operated well into 2020, judging by the COVID signs on the office (where the lights are still on). In fact, many of the rooms still look ready to go, though others, of course, do not. If it did run that late, I would put the closing date as well *after* the swimming pool fill-in date, as that looks to have been done a good time ago given the plants in the hot tub area, and the patchy grass on the pool itself.

Apparently at the end, the manager lived in-house, as there is a second story room with an irritated sign saying no knocking after 8PM as it is not an office.

To me the architecture with its fence around the top of the building and the corner towers looks a bit like a stalag, and I can't imagine what purpose the enclosed huts on top of those served. I would say AC, but the rooms appear to have had standard outside-wall AC units:

I'm not sure what Young's Plantation is, or why it merits a shout-out on the sign.

LoopNet says the property is six acres and at one time was on the market for $495,000, although it is apparently no longer for sale.

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I was in Parkland Plaza last weekend and noticed that the insurance agency by the nail spa was gone. Google is not helping me on dates here, but I'm going to say 2020 since I don't think it could have been vacant longer than that without my noticing it. (Though, admittedly, I have proved to be startlingly unobservant at times). It looks like though I have done a number of closings for suites on the State Street side of the plaza, I have never done this one in particular.