Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

As you can see from these two sets of pictures, the Circle K at the corner of Two Notch Road & the Trenholm Road Extension is closed, the pumps have been demolished, and apparently the storage tanks have been dug up, or that is the next step.

The store here was much smaller than the current Circle K style, and to me the lot does not look big enough to put in one on their new standard lines. In the case of a similar situation on Bethel Church, they removed the pumps and tanks and then put the building on the market. I expect they will do the same here, unless they go as far as razing the building entirely.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)

UPDATE 28 February 2023 -- As mentioned again by commenter Thomas, this building has now been razed:

UPDATE 29 March 2023: Updating tags.

UPDATE 16 January 2024 -- Now a Valvoline Instant Oil Change:

This mailbox store was the end unit in the venerable Jimmy's Mart strip on Two Notch Road. I noticed a few weeks ago that it is now vacant.

Somewhere in this area was a auto-carwash which seemed to vanish almost overnight, but I can't quite place it.

The last reviews I see date from the start of 2021, so I'll put that as the closing date. Whatever happened here though, seems to have happened in two phases, judging by the door sign. I know they were open during the pandemic, so it wasn't that, but apparently they had to close temporarily for some reason, and it just segued into a permanent closing.

(Hat tip to commenter Bethany)

I noticed last time I drove by Very's to see if they were doing dine-in yet that the thrift store in the same Two Notch plaza was gone. Judging by their Facebook, they were open into at least December of last year. I used to stop into places like this all the time to look for old books and records, but both are digital for me these days, so I never did stop here. The full name seems to have been Refreshed & Restored (R&R) Ministries Thrift Store, so I guess they were associated with a church.

I know The Clock Doctor has had several locations as I can remember hearing about it growing up. I figured that eventually I would take the big hall clock that I "fixed" as a teenager and actually get it working again, but in the event I never did, and am not at all sure anymore that I would want that making noise all night anyway.

The only previous location that I know of was on Covenant Road in a building that was recently demolished.

The pictured location is one of the odder strip malls on Two Notch: It is all trailers and sheds. My guess has always been that zoning doesn't allow any permanent buildings right up against a railroad track like that, but in the event these have been here so long they might as well be permanent. It appears to me that a new business is already setting up in the Clock Doctor trailer.

(Hat tip to commenter Dan R)

When I took these pictures, I was thinking this spot was PC Corner, but it turned out I had already done a closing on that, and anyway, it was two suites over. This looks to have been The Flower Botique, which has apparently moved to 8816 Two Notch. It turns out I did have a picture of that from a different closing, it's just not a very good one:

(Click through and look all the way to the left..)

I thought about going to Norton a few times, but they weren't open on Saturday, and Best Buy was, so that was the deciding factor there. I was a bit surprised to notice that there was a closing sign on the door (which I thought I took a picture of) saying they were shutting down temporarily due to COVID-19, but when I did a google search, I found that the building went on the market in October.

As far as I know the Broad River Road location is still open.

UPDATE 22 March 2021 -- Here are the pictures of the door sign I mentioned:

Virginia College was the follow-on operation in this Columbia Mall outparcel to Toys-R-Us. As you can see in that post, the college did some major work on the building before opening in 2010.

The whole chain ran into trouble in 2016 when the Federal Department of Education withdrew recognition of its accrediting body. (As I recall the feds were in a bit of a snit about for-profit schools in general at the time). They tried & failed to find another body that would accredit them, leading, as far as I can tell from the Wikipedia article, to the whole chain shutting down in 2018.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I read recently that Richland County had totally dropped the ball on redevelopment of Columbia Mall, and had no idea what they were going to do, despite already buying all the anchor locations. Certainly on a brief partial walk through last Sunday, many shops were shut during regular mall hours, and the number of vacant spaces continues to grow. Stocking even looked a bit sparse in Macy's.

When I visited the food court, it appeared to me that only one vendor, Cynthia's Soul Food, was actually open at the time, though I think at least two other storefronts looked to still be populated and would probably be open on weekdays. I don't know anything about Sarku Japan, but google suggests that there is still one at Columbiana Mall.

I think the King Pizza sign can come down now..

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

I have noticed Nuttall Tire on Millwood over the years mainly for their Kilroy Was Here logo, and the odd warehouse-y building they were in (Anyone know what it was?). In December, they left their home of over 20 years to relocate into the old Dick Dyer Toyota dealership location on Two Notch.

ColaDaily has the story:

"We’ve outgrown the building and the parking lot," said owner, Stephen Nuttall. "We like to joke that the walls are expanding and contracting here. But it’s good to fight good problems."

Here are a few shots of the new location:

(Hat tip to commenter MB)