Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I'm pretty sure that this former paint store in the Big Lots strip mall on Two Notch near Spring Valley still had a Porter sign (as seen in the first picture) rather than the new PPG Paints name on it, but I can't tell for sure as it has been painted over better than usual (perhaps unsurprisingly) and I can't see any label scar in these photos.

I'm also not sure of the date, but I noticed it in early October, so I'm going with "September 2021".

This shopping center has done better than I would expect lately in making vacancies good, so we'll see if something else moves in soon.

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:

Dougal's was the follow-on operation in the storefront to Fins Aquatic Livestock & Supplies. I don't get out this way often, so I can't say much about it, although it's always nice to find a notary outside the national stores where it always turns out "We don't do those". The specific closing date was given by the owner in a google review post.

It looks like I have previously tagged shops in this plaza as "Woodrow Street", so I need to change all of those to "North Woodrow Street" at some point.

Atlantic is the follow-on operation in this Two Notch storefront to Haverty's. That store closed in early 2018, and according to photos on Google maps, Atlantic opened there in December of the same year.

I have to say, after going into the lot for pictures, that the location is not very easy to get in and out of, especially if you are going East and the lot seems a bit small. Whether any of that is a factor, I don't know.

Given the dates listed on the (plentiful) roadside signs, it appears they want to wrap things up by the end of the month.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)

UPDATE 29 September 2021: Missed a picture:

UPDATE 13 March 2022 -- As mentioned in the comments, this building has been razed:

Main Street Home was the follow-on operation in this Broad River Road location to Floor It Now. According to their Facebook page, they moved to the new location at 1711 Lake Murray Boulevard on 24 July 2021. This is shown in the second set of pictures (though they did not come out very well).

I am not sure what is next for this building. Apparently it was listed on LoopNet at one time, but currently does not seem to be there. Commenter Andrew has noticed that some of the adjacent property has been sold, so perhaps something is in the works.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 30 September 2021: Added second picture, above, of the old location with the signage down.

This men's clothing store has moved up Two Notch several blocks East, from this strip across from Columbia Mall to a storefront next to Nick's. As far as I can tell, the move came around June of 2021.

UPDATE 13 March 2022 -- Here is the new location:

As far as I can tell, Hanna Beauty Supply was open into 2021. I don't know if there was a change of ownership in the property, but the adjacent Forest Drive Market closed somewhere in the same timeframe.

At any rate, the place is now setting up to be a Kim's Beauty Supply, so perhaps it was just a matter of Kim's buying them out.

UPDATE 14 March 2023: Correct the name from "Hannah" to "Hanna", update tags.

I'm guessing this building was at one time a "country store" type place that made the switchover to "convenience store". As near as I can tell from google reviews, it was Food Mart & Grocery as recently as three years ago, and the roadside sign suggests it reopened as Secret's sometime after that, though the length of the grass suggests that incarnation didn't last too long.

This legacy motel on US-601 at the Sumter Highway interchange has been here many years, and had a certain amount of fame as the Coronet Motel, which was the home of the The Circus Room -- A nightclub in an old circus bigtop tent.

In more recent years it has been a generic family run motel with a convenience store added in the office to bring in a bit more business (which has been in decline ever since Interstates became a thing). The only time I ever stopped was for a much needed comfort break on my way to the beach. I had previously been to the gas station on the other side of the intersection, and had been well less than impressed. In the event I probably should have take that option again. It turned out that the bathroom was unisex, and despite the fact that it had a perfectly good door lock, the exceedingly large woman on the pot when I opened the door had not engaged it. It was an encounter which I don't think did either of us much good..

I noticed a year or so ago that the place had finally given up the ghost and took these pictures a few months ago. Unfortunately many were taken against the sun, but since I doubt I will ever get by there in the morning, so it is what it is.

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Sally Beauty Supply in Fashion Place on Decker has closed. One google review of the place suggested that it was moving to "Garner", which I would take to be Garners Ferry, but I did not see any sign on the door, nor any listing on the company website

However, I do note that the Two Notch location at Sparkleberry Square is still in business.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)