Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Rick's was a fishing and ABC store right across Bluff Road from the Columbia Industrial Park. I never went in, but I would see it often driving to and from work a few years ago. This is right next door to the old Cricket Club/Diamonds and the old Grasshopper Club/Vet's Hall. I'm not sure when they closed, but it's been long enough to board the place up and take down the road sign, so I'm going to guess 2020.

I was not aware of Primal Gourmet which is a "kitchen & market" on Meeting Street. Apparently the did a lot of prepared meals as well as being an SCDA flagged marketplace. As commenter Heath reports, they are regrouping while dealing with, staffing, supply-chain, pricing and pandemic issues, and expect to be back in some format soon.

Commenter Andrew supplies this link to a ColaDaily story, and you can read a somewhat longer explanation from their door note if you click through to the large version above. Hopefully they will be back soon.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

UPDATE 5 February 2022: Fixed missing tag issue.

UPDATE 17 June 2022 -- Removed the "Temporary" from the post title, and am adding these pictures of the follow-on operation, Brickhouse Gourmet Coffee & Tea Co:

Here's yet another store very much in my orbit into which I never went for one reason or another. I believe that the last time I bought clothes I thought about looking through the shirts in this Trenholm Plaza storefront, but in the event I ended up at Belk's & Amazon.

With this closing, there are now three empty spaces on this side of the plaza, to include the old Stein Mart (which was a Halloween store for a while) and Rosso.

On the other hand, there is now a Mac store in the old Michaels Jewelry, so they are still able to fill vacancies.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

Like many of the old buildings with a faux stone exterior, this location on Knox Abbott Drive was once a Popeye's restaurant. However since at least 2009, and probably well before, it was the location for Vacuum Center.

Recently they moved shop to 1306 Charleston Highway, a building which was also a restaurant: Chappy's Fish & Chips:

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)

Although I must have driven by it many times, I was not aware of Nostalgia Antiques on Beltline. Judging by their Facebook page, I might well have found some items there, probably more on the "Collectibles" side of things.

You can see their closing announcement on their Facebook, but you might want to check it in the future as well, as they intend to continue selling online and out of their home.

(Hat top to commenter Gypsie)

C & J Automotive is nestled on a narrow strip of land in between the train tracks and Saint Andrews Road in the Seven Oaks section of Irmo. It is not too far past Sno Biz.

It appears to me that the lot remains in business while they are looking for a buyer, so I am just putting an indifinite "2022" as the closing date.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

Well it's back out to Shops At Risdon for this closing. I don't know anything about Andrew's Jewelry, but it looks to be in the final stages of a going-out-of business sale. Actually as these were taken late last month, they be done by now.

Computer Renaissance was a franchaised chain of refurbished computer stores. I know there was one in Agusta when I worked there, there was one in Harbison, and then there was this one, now a tattoo studio, on Hardscrabble Road when I came back to Columbia.

My memory is that I bought two computers here, both desktop systems, one to replace a box of my sister's that had suffered motherboard failure, and one for myself about which I'm blanking on what finally happened to it. Anyway, they were both fine, and the staff was helpful.

I said up top "Computer Renaissance was", and I think that's correct. There is still a web site, but it has not been updated since 2010, and is like a visit to another age. However, I was able to find from it that the staff from the Hardscrabble store have moved on to Bristeeri Technologies which seems to be located in Elgin.

I don't know anything about this used car lot in Lexington, other than it was in a nice little legacy brick house, and they had somebody with a sense of humor doing their art.

Currently the lot is for sale -- and will be, I'm sure, another bit of development for this burgeoning corridor.

(Hat tip to commenter JohnR)

Williston Road is the connector between I-95 and US-301/US-76. Over the years I had noticed this small convenience store from time to time as I was driving the north route to the beach, and recently noticed that it was gone. What I had *not* noticed before, is that it directly abuts a cemetary (Either "Mizpah Cemetary" if you look at the sign or "Hinds Cemetary" if you look at google maps). You could probably infer a pretty good closing date by looking at the gas prices, but all I see from google reviews is that it was already closed "six months ago" (I don't know why google won't put a real date on all their reviews..).

If you look at the google photos it appears that they had a pool table inside, and maybe a bar/food area, but honestly they are too blurry to really tell.