Archive for the ‘business’ tag
AMF Bowling Center, 2601 Broad River Road: 2000s 31 comments
I have bowled, I believe, four times. The first time, I had beginner's luck, the other times -- not so much. I have the impression that this alley, on Broad River Road not too far from Briarsgate, has changed hands a couple of times over the years I've been driving by it, an impression reinforced by the repainted look of the No Loitering sign. I'm pretty sure it was a going concern until fairly recently -- the plants inside are still OK, right?
As with many places, I have no idea what happened here. It seems to me that bowling used to be a good bit more popular when I was a kid -- it was often on TV on weekends, and you could send in cereal box-tops for free admission to alleys, but given that there are so many channels now it could just be that I don't run across it as much (and I don't eat cereal anymore either..). I believe that the Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone used the decline of bowling teams as a metaphor for what he thought was wrong with American society in the 90s, but I don't believe that was meant to imply the sport as a whole was on the way out, just the social/team aspect of it. I didn't notice any for sale signs on the property, so I'm not sure what the outlook for it is.
UPDATE 6 October 2017 -- It appears that something is happening here. The notices (from 2015) seem to be to the effect that the owners either need to do some minimal repairs (the building was apparently open to anyone wanting in) or tear it down. I'm not sure if that's what the dumpsters are all about or if there is actually something going in there. The cross painted on the side made me think perhaps a church was taking possession, but there is still a realty sign at the road front, so probably not..
UPDATE 5 February 2019 -- As reported in the comments, now Immunotek:
Howard Johnson's Motel, 200 Zimalcrest Drive: 1980s(?) 4 comments
It always impresses me how easy it is to take a well known, well regarded brand and run it into the ground. There's no reason carved in stone as to why Sears shouldn't be the country's number one retailer. They had universal market penetration, a trusted image and core products that were consumer touchstones for quality: Craftsman, Kenmore & Diehard. Yet with all that going for them, they still fell asleep at the wheel and let Wal-Mart and even Target eat their lunch.
Something similar happened to Howard Johnson. At one time they were so ubiquitous and well known that Mel Brooks could joke about it in Blazing Saddles and be confident that everyone would get it. The chain is still around, but it's certainly not what it was. The location on Bush river continues in business as a hotel (the one in Cayce with the Cinderella carraige is boarded up). I think it's one of those generic sounding chains now with, I'm guessing, a low franchise fee. It's also got one of Columbia's several Indian restaurants. The time I went there, the food was fine, but the service was a bit slow -- it's changed ownership at least twice since then though. (My favorite Indian restaurant continues to be The Delhi Palace in another hotel over on Broad River).
(By the way, if you can't see the cat in the last picture when you click for full-size, then your browser is automatically scaling images for you, which is, in my opinion, bad. You can fix it in the browser settings [it's different for Internet Explorer and Firefox].)
Columbia Athletic Club, 4502 Forest Drive: 1 June 2008 (ownership)/April 2009 (building) 22 comments
I had heard that Gold's Gym was coming to Forest Drive, and wondered what effect it would have on Columbia Athletic Club.
It appears from this story that the owner decided, having been handed a pig, that he'd better put some lipstick on it and do a Kent Brockman "And I, for one, welcome our new Gold's overlords". Actually, I agree. Realistically there's no way they could compete in the long-term with Gold's and this is a win-win by giving Gold's an early entry into the neighboorhood and giving a leg-up to current members and employees. Of course, since I've never set foot in a gym, it's all pretty academic as far as I'm concerned...
Presumably, this means that Woodfield's Barber & Beauty will have to relocate even after dodging the bullet of having the plaza featuring their sign demolished.
UPDATE 30 January 2010: Well, Gold's Gym moved in and out, now open in their new digs at the old Forest Drive Church. The building is vacant and for sale now. I took the opportunity of the empty parking lot to get a good number of additional pictures, including some over the back wall -- this is the first time I have ever seen the pool there. It appears that one of the second story picture windows is out for some reason.
UPDATE 5 April 2012 -- I thought I would get some more pictures before work on the conversion for Trader Joe's commences:
UPDATE 1 June 2012: Trader Joe's is coming, see the comments for details. Meanwhile, asbestos removal and interior demolition have started:
6 June 2012:
17 June 2012:
UPDATE 26 June 2012 -- Work progresses in these 24 June pix. Half of the silhouettes look like reverse atomic shadows now:
UPDATE 18 July 2012 -- Really, I don't see why they didn't knock the whole building down. Apparently they are using absolutely none of it other than the walls themselves. Given that none of the rest matched what they want, it's hard to believe the walls just happened to be 100% perfect! The pool persists as a water filled hole in the ground for now (pix 15 July 2012):
26 August 2012:
23 September 2012:
21 October 2012:
The pool:
UPDATE 30 October 2012 -- The Trader Joe's sign went up today:
1 December 2012:
5 January 2013:
20 January 2013:
29 January 2013:
17 February 2013:
17 March 2013:
UPDATE 6 January 2013: Added 6 June 2012 photoset.
UPDATE 6 March 2013: Added a bunch of photosets.
UPDATE 23 March 2013 -- And Trader Joe's is open:
Photosets:
Galaxy World, 7814 Two Notch Road (at I-77): 1980s 5 comments
As I wrote in my post on Robo's Video Ardade, nothing says "80s" like an arcade. But perhaps an even better example than Robos is the arcade which was at Two Notch & I-77 (although actually I-77 wasn't completed to that point at the time).
This arcade was a spec-built freestanding building located a good ways from any customer base, or foot-traffic. Robos was across the street from the University, other arcades were in malls, this one was meant to be a destination in itself, and it worked for a while...
I remember that in the summers while I was in grad school, I would drive out to Bell Camp (to be the subject of its own post someday) for an afternoon swim and drive home via Two Notch with my hair still drying in the breeze from the car window to make a stop at the arcade. I recall that the set of games skewed a bit from my favorites, but I still found enough I could play that I could drop a few dollars and spend an hour or so.
Soon after that, the arcade phenomenon crashed and arcades all over town closed down. My memory is that the next occupant of this building was some sort of carpet store, and that there may have been another before its current tenant, a golf center. I do know people who like golf, but I'd still rather visit an arcade.
UPDATE 16 July 2010: Finally updated the post title from "Video Arcade" to "Galaxy World", and added the full street address.
UPDATE 7 January 2014: Fix street address from 7813 to 7184.