Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The Movies at Polo opened and closed while I was living in Aiken. I can't recall specifically that I ever saw a show there, though I was in town more weekends than not. I think this place is another example of Pat Berman's underfannied theory of the Columbia movie market. There are simply not enough fannies-on-seats week-in-and-week out in Columbia to support the number of theaters we used to have. Of course in this case, it probably didn't help either that a new theater was in the offing at the nearby Village at Sandhills, though I'm pretty sure The Movies at Polo gave up the ghost before that multiplex opened.

Unlike the Capiton Centre Theatre we can't see with any specificity which movies actually closed this operation, but there has been no lack of bombs in recent years. I like to think it was Son of the Mask.

At any rate, we can see that, as usual, it wasn't a shortage of parking that did the place in:

For restaurant buildings, the last stage is the "Asian Buffet" stage. For other retail space, the last stage is the "Self Storage" stage:

As an aside, The Movies at Polo was actually a rather misleading name, as the place is not that close to Polo Road. The Movies Near Sesqui would have been better.

UPDATE 11 September 2011 -- As mentioned in the comments, there has long been a sign indicating that a funeral home is coming to the property. In fact, the sign has been there long enough that it seems unlikely now. I guess there might be enough room in the old parking lot for such an establishment and its own associated parking, but it would seem rather crowded. The self-storage place mentioned above has been open in the old theater building, and several adjacent new buildings for a good while now.

Also, as indicated in the comments, commenter Andrew has pinned the closing date for this place as July 2005, so I have updated the post title to indicate that. Also added the full street address.

UPDATE 27 February 2014 -- Well, I'm not entirely sure what happened here. I always wondered how Shive's could possibly build a funeral home on this site given that Monster had the old theater building, leaving only the old parking lot open -- and funeral homes need lots of parking for visitation and organizing the funeral processions. At any rate, the sign proclaiming this as the new Shive's site sat there for years with no action, and it has finally been replaced with one saying that the new funeral home will be built on Trenholm Road Extension instead (but Monster's sign still welcomes Shive's..)

UPDATE 21 April 2014 -- Just for the record, Shive's has broken ground on Trenholm Road Extension & Dawson Road now:

UPDATE 7 June 2016 -- Either vandals, the wind or the property owner have done a number on the old sign:

UPDATE 22 March 2017 -- I see the parking lot has finally been sold:

I think this is the first post I've written about a place where the doors are still open, but the writing is definitely on the wall for Sofa Express: Literally. And the writing says things like "Chapter 11 Bankruptcy" and "Store Closing Forever".

I'm not sure if this says anything about The Village At Sandhills, but this is the second place out there that I've seen close. On the other hand, the time you are most likely to get a new sofa is when you buy a new house, so it's more likely related to the housing market than Sandhills itself.

UPDATE 10 March 2010 -- Well, after being a "Haloween" store on a temporary basis, it looks like the long-term future for this space will be as another Gold's Gym:

(also added full street address to post title).

UPDATE 21 May 2010 -- Looks like this location is being used by Gold's for presale only. The actual gym will be in the neighboring former Ashley Furniture Homestore location

UPDATE 14 July 2010: Well, the presale (and temporary gym) is closed. The new Gold's in the former Ashley building is completely set up and running now, and this building is again empty.

UPDATE 25 April 2018 -- This location is now Value City Furniture:

This is one of the closings that tempts me to write good riddance. I know that's harsh, and that this place was someone's dream and livelihood. However..

The last time I was in this place was in the Spring, while the Sparkleberry Fair was running on Clemson Road across from The Village at Sandhills. We had been at the fair with my little three year old neice, and she was tired out and cranky, and had been promised a snack. The ABC was just across the road, and we imagined zipping in, getting her, and ourselves, a cookie and something to drink.

It quickly became apparent that this was not going to happen as visualized. The store didn't seem very full, but for some reason everyone in there was in the line rather than sitting down, and the line was not moving. It seemed the computer was down. OK, that happens. We decided we could wait a few minutes rather than putting my neice back in her car-seat and trying to find somewhere else. However, listening to the staff talk, it gradually dawned on me that none of them had any idea of what they were doing, and none of them had any authority to do anything.

At a well run restaurant in situations like this, after the staff has flailed for a few minutes, the manager comes out of the back and says something like:

Folks, looks like our computer is down, but we're going to take care of you. I've got my calculator and note pad here, and I'm going to write up your orders and get you your change. We'll worry about entering it into the system later.

Nothing of the sort happened here, and for the twenty or so minutes we waited, nobody was helped. It boggled my mind that with half a dozen people being paid to stand around, the most basic function of a business, taking in cash from customers, was not taking place.

The next time I went to Sandhills, I noticed that the store had closed, and was not a bit surprised. I was a bit surprised on a later visit to notice legal notices posted on the door complaining of non-payment of rent. But only a bit.

UPDATE 12 April 2010: Added full street address to post title.

UPDATE 5 May 2020: Add map icon, update tags.

UPDATE 5 June 2023: Put the address in the post title into suite format. Update tags.