Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This Sandy's was in Lexington in the same plaza as McAlister's Deli. I never ate at this one -- If I'm going to drive out to this area to eat, it's probably Uno.

Here again is a story on the owner's retirement.

I believe I have now covered all of the Sandy's locations that were open until the end. As I recall, there was a location on Parklane once, maybe I'll try to find that building someday.

This store closed at the same time as the Parkland Plaza store, but I kept forgetting to get pictures of it until it caught my eye the other night. As of now, six months later, the building is still to be re-purposed. WLTX has the story of the chain's foreclosure.

UPDATE 7 May 2025: Update tags.

When the Hardee's co-located with this S-Mart closed last year, I figured it was some sort of issue specific to that franchaise, or Hardee's in general, but with the closing of the S-Mart as well, it seems more like perhaps the restaurant lease was just up first and there are plans to re-purpose the whole property.

Looking at the work going on, it appears to be an extensive re-model, but not a demolition and re-build.

(Hat tip to commenter Ed)

UPDATE 4 February 2020 -- Now open as a 7-11/Exxon/Burger King:

UPDATE 2 October 2023: Updating tags.

While I was getting the Save A Lot pictures, I noticed that the pizza joint in the same strip has now been (partially?) reflagged as a King's Pizza.

Their (officially claimed) Yelp page gives the name as King's Planet Pizza and has a link to the main King's web site, which curiously does not list the place as a location (though it does still list Marshall Street, which I think has fallen through). Does anyone know if the Columbia Mall location has come to pass?

Commenter Badger noted the closing of this Save A Lot, which I had not noticed. If I remember correctly, this store was originally in Landmark square.

When the Harden Street Save A Lot closed recently, one of the articles about that noted that 10 other Save A Lot stores had closed in December of 2018. Perhaps this was one of them.

For the store not really having been here for that long, the label-scar is quite distinct.

(Hat tip to commenter Badger)

When commenter Brad mentioned

Circle K/BP at the corner of Old Cherokee and 378 in Lexington is permanently closed.

I had a hard time finding it because as far as I could tell from Google Maps, Old Cherokee Road didn't intersect with 378. I resolved to just keep my eyes open the next time I was out in Lexington, and did see the store as shown in the pictures above (not very good as I was going the wrong way and was too late to turn in).

Anyway, for whatever reason, unless you zoom way in, Google identifies this stretch of Old Cherokee only as State Rd S32-485, though it has no problem with correctly labeling stretches of the road to the west.

As for Circle K, they have been razing and updating a lot of their stores recently. We'll see if this one gets the same treatment.

(Hat tip to commenter Brad)

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While I was at Landmark Square the other day, I noticed an empty storefront near the anchor.

Somehow I missed the story a few years ago, but Shepherd's Corner Christian book store closed in May of 2017 when the owner moved back to West Virginia.

The store started in Cedar Terrace, and moved to this spot in 2002, for a total of just under 40 years of service.

Elite Pawn & Gun moved into this space after Ole Timey Meat Market. They last listed in the February 2017 phonebook, so I am going to mark the closing date as 2017.

The new tenant is SMP Phone Doctor, a cellphone sales and repair shop. I'm not sure what is going on with all the trucks.

UPDATE 11 July 2019 -- I'm updated the post title with "Moved", as I saw the new location for this place, which is in the old H. Rubin Vision Center closer to town:

I noticed this empty convenience store at the corner of Garners Ferry & Hazelwood roads the other day. A little research shows that it was a Pantry, which became a Kangaroo, which became a Circle K which was finally superceded by a more modern location.

You can see it here on the LoopNet listing with the pictures showing the gas canopy and island (with Marathon branding) still in place.

It's a pretty good location, with a corner spot and traffic light access, so we'll see what happens.

UPDATE 29 March 2023: Updating tags.