Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Footaction was on the lower level of Columbia Mall at the foot of the winding staircase, underneath the old Lowery Organs location, across from the former Radio Shack and adjacent to the former JC Penny.

According to their door sign, Footaction had initially closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, but rolled that into a permanent closure at some point, and they have already stripped the store. As reported by commenter Rashaad, the other Footlocker brands have also left the mall, and will probably feature here in due course.

As an aside, social distancing is not an issue at Columbia Mall:

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad)

Commenter Lone Wolf notes this Free Times story on the closing of State Street upstairs loft location of The Cigar Box, which sounds like it was a bar as well as a cigar lounge. They had only moved to this location last September, and as you would expect COVID-19 was a factor.

Commenter Heath noted their move last year, and this Free Times story about it, but I never got around to doing a closing on the stores on Main & Rosewood. I do have some pictures of the wooden fox mural from the Rosewood store that hopefully I will get up sometime.

(Hat tip to commenter Lone Wolf)

Miyo's of Lexington was already planning to close at the end of March 2020 to make way for a Chipolte. I don't know if the current crisis advanced that date at all. ColaDaily has the story, which, essentially is that the lease was up, and they decided not to renew.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

UPDATE 20 August 2020 -- Chipolte is now open here:

There is a major remodel going on at Sesqui Center right now. Looking at the first picture, taken several months ago, it appears that perhaps the store next to the Professional Barbers (whose sign you can barely see behind the dumpster) might be a tattoo operation.

The "before" picture doesn't seem to show this section in any worse condition than the rest of the strip mall (which is reasonably well kept up), so I don't know if there was a fire here or what.

After the Dutch Square Theatre closed and the building was razed, Ruby Tuesday built a new store on this site, and ran it until last month. Ruby Tuesday has been having problems and closing locations in recent years in part because the restaurant has no strong identity. You go to Ruby Tuesday for what, exactly? For me it's the salad bar, but if that's not your thing, then its hard to say why you would -- Which is not to say there's anything wrong with the food.

Anyway, this store probably would have held on for a while, perhaps indefinitely, but with the temporary closure for COVID-19 and no money coming in, I guess the balance just tipped the wrong way.

(Hat tip to commenter Homer, et al)

UPDATE 28 February 2022 -- As mentioned in the comments, now Ms. B's:

I presume at some point they will get the Ruby Tuesday sign taken down..

Long's Drugs folded their retail operation on 24 March 2020. In retrospect, it was probably good timing as their stores were not larg mini-department stores like Walgreens & CVS, and purely medical business has been hurt by the current crisis with many doctor's appointments being cancelled. The company itself remains in business, serving institutional clients. WLTX has the story here.

This particular location is at the corner of Kilbourne Road & Devine Street, adjacent to the Piggly Wiggly. It has good traffic light access, but is too small to become a convenience store, so I'm not sure what is next for the property. Looking inside, it appears that Long's has not completely finished vacating yet, and I didn't notice any real estate sign on the property.

I shoped at this store once, when I was living out of town and needed a prescription filled after visiting a local doc-in-a-box for something or other. I recall being struck by how odd it was to be in a drug store that was almost wholly dedicated to being a drug store. An era is passing.

(Hat tip to commenter Beth)

Sabor Latin Steet Grill was the follow-on operation to breakfast & lunch spot Le Peep which closed in April of 2019. Sabor opened in July of 2019, as reported in ColaDaily, giving it a run of something less than a year.

Although the pictured Family Box seems to hew towards standard Mexican items, my understanding is that Sabor had a fuller menu with items from other Southern countries, and I had it on my mental list to eventually visit. Unfortunately, the restaurant was caught up in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and was not able to last from its 21 March 2020 temporary closing into the coming (hopefully!) full reopening period. The Free Times has that story:

The Vista location of Sabor Latin Street Grill, a fast-casual restaurant chain out of Charlotte, closed late last month amid the coronavirus’ impact on area restaurants.

Mark Gardner, former general manager with the restaurant, confirmed to Free Times that the restaurant closed on March 21, and that the closure is now permanent. The restaurant had employed 22 workers.

“COVID-19 … just hurt sales too much,” Gardner explains.

Numerous restaurants throughout the area have grappled with takeout-only offerings since Gov. Henry McMaster closed South Carolina restaurant dining rooms on March 17 in an effort to enforce social distancing. Gardner says the Columbia Sabor gave takeout a shot, but it wasn’t successful enough to justify continuing.

“We tried that the first week, but the sales just weren’t there,” he says.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I first wrote about this place back in 2007 in one of the earliest posts on this site. At the time, I was noting that it had ceased to be an Atlanta Bread Company. At some point after that, Panera moved in.

I ate there a number of times over the years, and considered it fairly well managed, especially compared to some of the other local locations, but looking at Yelp suggests it had begun to slip some lately.

The last reviews seem to be from the early April timeframe, which would put it during the current crisis. The door sign does not give that as a cause, just noting that they have "relocated" to Killian Road. Perhaps that was the plan all along. Certainly Sandhill is not a hot location now, especially in comparison to that area. In point of fact, I have eaten at the Killian location, and while it is more "modern", if that is the future direction for Panera, I really did not care for it.

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Hat)

UPDATE 17 June 2021 -- Setting up to be Esther's Soul Food Kitchen:

UPDATE 5 June 2023: Add suite number to post title

Uncle Louie's in The Vista has closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. They have been closed on a temporary basis since 17 March, but today made it permanent. Commenter Lone Wolf provides the news, and this Coladaily link:

Representatives from Uncle Louie's, a popular bar in Columbia's Vista, announced Wednesday that the business will be closing permanently, effective immediately. The bar had already closed March 17, at the time as a temporary closure, due to COVID-19.

Management posted on the business Facebook page:

"We are sad to say that March 17th was our LAST last call. When we opened 20 yrs ago we never imagined the time we would have. Without a great staff and the best regulars in town it never would have been possible. Thanks for letting us serve you and for the friendships we made along the way. Please continue to eat and drink local, tip your bartenders, and be good to each other. Cheers!"

I took these pictures some years ago when I got an incorrect report that the place had closed at that time.

As a general note, I echo Lone Wolf's sentiments that something has got to give. Every death is tragic, but at some point the harm being done by destroying people's livelihoods just becomes too overwhelming for this to go on.

(Hat tip to commenter Lone Wolf)

At one time, in a vanished building, this address hosted Mammy's Shanty restaurant.

The current building has been a number of car related businesses. Brooks Automotive and The Auto Club, Inc. were follow-ons in this spot to Prestige Hitech Autowerks. From this Facebook post, I think I can say that Brooks opened early in 2015. The inflatable Carfox caught my eye in May of 2015, which is when that set of pictures dates from. I assume, since they appear to have been co-located and presumably related, that The Auto Club dates from the same period.

I noticed on 1 March of 2020 (a rather dreary day) that they were gone as well.

I would expect another car operation to move in at some point, but not, I'm sure, until the current mess is sorted out.

UPDATE 10 October 2022 -- I'm not sure what Nutall has to do with this property as they are up the hill a bit, but the door sign suggests maybe they are working on this site. Anyway, I took some more pictures:

Also adding a mpap icon.