Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

For some reason, I thought I had already done a closing for Justice, but I don't see it, and none of the facts I just googled seem familiar, so I guess not!

Anyway, Justice was a tween girl brand with a bit of a complicated history. It was started by The Limited as Limited Too, and was then bought by Dress Barn. Ascena Retail Group, the follow-on name for Dress Barn after a reorg, went bankrupt in 2020, and this affected Catherines stores, some Lane Bryant, Ann Taylor Factory and Justice stores.

The Justice brand was then bought by Bluestar Alliance LLC but the final stores closed on 17 December 2020. The brand now seems to be owned by Justice Brand Holdings LLC, but the web site simply says to "Stay tuned" for future developments..

I have been holding off doing a post on Deno's because it wasn't clear exactly what their status is; however, at this point they are clearly closed for a long-term, if not forever, despite the fact that there is no real-estate sign, and all of the furnishings and equipment are still in the building.

Somehow I had it in my head that Deno's was a seafood restaurant, and so never went. Looking online now, I think I clearly would have liked the place. The last review I see on their Facebook page (which has not updated since 2014) is from February of 2020, so I think clearly COVID-19 was an issue here, and the roadside sign does mention that they were open for takeout for some time into the pandemic.

(Hat tip to commenter Barbara)

UPDATE 17 August 2021 -- The sign has been patched, but not re-logoed:

UPDATE 15 November 2023: Update tags.

When I was getting pictures for Books A Million I noticed that the J Peters building was vacant as well. I figured they had gone under during the great plague of 2020, but a little research established that, in fact, they have moved to a better waterfront location on the Marsh Walk in Murrells Inlet.

This building was originally an Applebee’s, and I ate there a number of times, though I was more likely to go to the adjacent T.G.I. Friday's. Applebee's have had their own trouble over the past few years and have closed a number of locations. This one apparently went under in August 2017. Here is a 2017 Sun News story about the closing of Applebee's and the opening of J Peters. I can't find a story on the move to the waterfront, but based on reviews, I would say it was about August of 2020.

In the meantime, this is one more vacancy in the Inlet Square vicinity.

Well, this may be the final Bi-Lo closing, unless I go farther afield. This store on US-378 started out as a Piggly Wiggly more than twenty years ago, and now with the sale of Bi-Lo has come full circle. It's nice to see a new Pig open, as that chain has been having its own problems. It seems that the crew who wanted to stay on were able to, which is nice. ColaDaily has the story.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

While I was out looking at the Edenwood Bi-Lo, I noticed that in the adjacent strip mall All N Good Spirits (a name which I like) has moved to 1622 Airport Boulevard, which is somewhere need the old Cayce K-Mart.

This store has been discussed several times in Have Your Say, but I had not yet gotten around to doing a closing on it. This Bi-Lo was out on the Charleston Highway not too far North of the I-26/I-77 interchange. As mentioned in this State story which I have linked many times, it was part of the package deal moving a number of local Bi-Lo stores to the Food Lion family. I did not drive by during the closing sale, but according to the article, the final day was expected to be 24 January, and as you can see, the Food Lion is now up and running.

Plainly this was some sort of fast food operation before it was a title loan place, but I can't quite identify it from the characteristics of the building. At any rate, North American was there in the last phonebook I have, Feb 2017, and I can't recall seeing the real estate sign out front before, so I'm just going to call the date here as 2020.

UPDATE 20 March 2021: Seems I was wrong about it being fast food -- adding Pearle Vision Center to the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 3 march 2023 -- As mentioned in the comments, this place has been razed and is being rebuilt as a Freddy's:

I have noticed this place off and on over the years while driving US-1 between I-26 & I-20, because teal is one of the only "non-guy" colors I know, and one that I actually like.

I noticed last weekend that it was closed. The facebook page has nothing since the start of 2020, so I'm just going to use 2020 for the closing date.

This one surprises me.

Fuddruckers closed in February 2020, and and was quickly sold to Columbia World Outreach Church for $452,500.

They worked several months getting the place gutted and rebuilt. According to LoopNet

Upgrades include a new roof, all new interior finishes, restrooms, sanctuary to accommodate 192 chairs, classrooms, children's nursery and a large outdoor area.

Unfortunately they did not have long to enjoy it, and the property went back on the market in mid-December 2020.

UPDATE 20 October 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments, this is to become The Gala Event Center:

UPDATE 15 December 2021 -- Looks like The Gala Event Center is up and running, and they have leveraged the very neglected patio area of Fuddruckers with new construction:

There was a question on Have Your Say recently as to whether the Chinese buffet in Crossroads Commons (down from the former Bi-Lo) was still open or not.

It's not. As far as I can tell from Yelp, it closed in early 2020. I'm guessing that COVID-19 played a role, but the reviews had been trending downwards for a while.

I don't seem to have a picture of it, but there is one here as part of the LoopNet listing.