Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

When Rich's came to Columbia with the opening of Columbia Mall it was kind of a big deal. Up until that point, Rich's was an Atlanta name and had the kind of cachet that exotic brands tend to accumulate. I was given to understand that at one point special shopping busses were charterted to run from SC to Atlanta mostly just to shop at Rich's.

Even The State got into the act, running several puff pieces on the store. I can recall one in particular which made the claim that the store was so famous for its customer service and ease of return that a woman once "returned" her husband to Rich's which took him "despite having no record of the sale".

Given that I was almost completely indifferent to style, I was never overwhelmed by the idea (or actuality) of having a Rich's in town, but I liked the odd "pipey" outside architecture of the store, and the quirky way it had an almost patio on the first floor and an interesting elevator which boarded there.

Rich's wasn't all about fashion. It opened during the tail end of the "a department store should have everything" era and so had a full selection of electronics and cookware like a Sears.

It also had a book department at the bottom of the escalator, and that was one of my regular spots to hit when visiting the mall. It tended to best-sellers and remainders so you never knew quite what you would find there. I know I got two volumes of Richard Burton's unexpurgated translation of The Arabian Nights there which I still have, though I never saw the other 15 or so.

At some point Rich's ran into trouble. Wikipedia suggests it started with the death of Richard Rich in 1975. I suspect over expansion and Richway may have contributed. Whatever the case, the chain was sold to Federated which also owned the Macy's name, and the Rich's brand was retired on 6 March 2005.

The old Columbia Mall Rich's store continues to operate as Macy's to this day, and if you consider things just in terms of continuous operation, is one of the last original stores in the mall (along with Sears and Radio Shack) -- there are no books or stereos though.

UPDATE 7 Feb 2010: Somehow I wrote "Frank Rich" above instead of "Richard Rich" (now there's a good comic book name..). I've fixed it (Thanks JT!). Check the comments for more info..

I see that the inside signage dubs this a Self Service Center, but we always called them Automated Post Offices, and there were only two in Columbia that I know of.

The first was in the old Richland Mall parking lot on the Beltline side. I remember it as being fairly high up in the parking lot (which sloped downhill from Beltline to the mall proper) and in-between Russell Stover and the old theater.

It was something of a big deal when it opened though I'm not entirely sure why. My main memory of it is that after I started driving, my sister and I were in the parking lot near the APO when across the lot another young guy very theatrically decided to become a maniac behind the wheel and play "chicken" with us. He was being a goof-ball with no intention to play "for real" and all three of us were cracking up.

This APO dates, I believe, back to the original Woodhill Mall and thus opened a number of years after the one at Richland Mall (Woodhill Mall being built much later).

When I was taking pictures for my Woodhill post, I decided that I had better get a number of the APO since it was looking rather threadbare, and since it had the kind of stamp machines that they have been phasing out of Post Offices for several years now.

That was back in April. I am pretty sure that I ate at Panera at least once in December and would have noticed if the APO was gone then. I certainly did notice the absence when I ate lunch there today, and got the second set of pictures of the empty site. I also noticed that across the parking lot the self-storage facility behind Jimmy Johns was flying a Post Office banner, so I guess some sort of facility or Contract Post Office over there has replaced this one.

Bonus question: What are the lights across the top of the stamp machine trying to spell out?

I noticed this indoor flea market back in September, I think. It was in the old Capitol Centre strip behind Columbia Mall. This is an ill starred retail complex which has seen the failure or relocation of Circuit City, Capitol Centre Theater, Movies Behind The Mall, Office Depot, Aliens & Alibis and Cucos Mexican Cafe. It was several hours before the closing hour stated on the doors when I walked in, but most of the vendors had already covered their wares and gone for the day. I believe I was the only customer in the place, which is always uncomfortable for the amount of attention you get then. In particular a guy came up to assure me that it was usually much busier than this and that anyway they were going to do a grand re-launch event in October. I thanked him and wished them well, but was mentally shaking my head as I walked out. Just from the atmospherics I was 90% certain the place was going to be gone before the New Year, which is in fact what happened.

This kind of place can make it, but I think it requres some special circumstances. For instance, there is an indoor flea market on US-17 just south of Myrtle Beach that has been going for ten years or so. *But*, they have high visibility from a busy highway *and* have an operating Food Lion in the plaza which brings in traffic. Unfortunately, Jim's Discount Mall was not visible from any road. Even if you were coming into Columbia Mall (which is not the draw it was once anyway), you cannot see up the hill into Capitol Centre. Further, there is no store still operating in the plaza that pulls in any regular traffic. Without any of that, it would take a lot of advertising to get the word out, and that is a problem for a low margin operation. If I were going to pick a place in Columbia where an indoor flea market would have a chance to work, it would be one of the empty Goody's buildings which still have good visibility and working stores in their plazas (this actually has sort-of happened on a temporary basis) or the old Circuit City area on Two Notch. (There is also distressed space in The Village at Sandhill, but I suspect they are not yet ready to accept lower market clients on a long term basis). Of course all those rents are probably still higher than Capitol Centre.

I have a vagure memory of stepping into Silver's once when I had walked down to Main Street on a sunny day back when I was living on campus in the early 1980s.

Even then, 30 years ago (and man it hurts to talk about the 80s being 30 years ago..), it was like stepping into another era of retail. I don't remember much about it other than it was a Woolworth's-like five and dime atmosphere, but without the modernizing touches Woolworth's (still mostly viable at the time) had added. On the other hand, I could be mistaken, since Loopnet claims the building was built in 1970, so it would have hardly have had time to get hoary by then..

The downstairs is available and doesn't look to have much happening inside, but the upstairs is luxury residences (here's one).

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I don't have much more to say about this Blockbuster (on Two Notch near Polo Road) closing that I didn't already say at the recent Decker Blockbuster closing, other than that this one is taking its own sweet time to wind things down. It seems like its been in "closeout sale" status for over a month now. (I say "now", I haven't driven by in a couple weeks, so it may in fact be gone at this point).

Meanwhile, I suspect we will see more Blockbuster closings here this year:

Blockbuster CFO Thomas Casey said closures of underperforming stores is supported by the fact that just 35% of Blockbuster stores generate about 80% of pre-tax earnings.

Speaking Jan. 12 at an investor event in New York, Casey said about 25% of a closed store’s revenue is transferred to other area Blockbuster locations. Blockbuster currently operates about 3,600 stores, with plans to shrink that number to 3,200 stores this year, while expanding Blockbuster Express kiosk operations.

“We’re pleased with the performance of our store-closing program,” Casey said.

UPDATE 5 October 2020: Changing the post title name from "Blockbuster" to "Blockbuster Video". Updating tags. Adding map icon.

It took me a while to figure out what this building was since I didn't get any street number in these pictures. I finally tracked it down through the realty sign, and find that this spot on Fernandina Road near the former Camping World and former Outdoor RV & Marine World was once Columbia Business Equipment.

It appears that sometime in 2005 they moved their Columbia operations to 5123 Bush River Road, and added a Charleston branch, leading them to take the now more appropriate name Carolina Busness Equipment.

Google doesn't pull up any other tenants at 3770, so apparently the building has been vacant for five years now.

I noticed when I was taking pictures of Granville's that the storefront across the street, Strobler Home Furnishings was vacant. I believe I've only bought one piece of furniture during my life so far, but as it happens I did note that their new store was up on Forest Drive back in September, since it moved into the old High Point Furniture Gallery (Pop's A&W Rootbeer back in the day..), though I hadn't realized Devine Street was the original location.

(Notice that their moving sign actually lists the wrong address: 4717 is Groucho's..)

UPDATE 11 Jan 2010: Added "AJ's" to the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 5 Feb 2013: The right hand part of the building is now occupied by The Pilates Studio:

I've written about this building before, but it looks like it's about to go vacant again. It was always something of an odd fit to see mattresses in a store that was obviously a fast-food joint, but it was kind of endearing as well.

I'm not sure where Awesome is moving to, but whatever happens, Two Notch Road will not be bereft of mattress stores..

UPDATE 3 June 2010 -- Hola Mexico Mexican restaurant will be moving into the building:

Here's yet another of Columbia's (or West Columbia's in this case) former Eckerd Drugs locations, and like a number of former drugstores in the area, it's been re-purposed as a discount store, a Dollar General in this case. I didn't get any front-on shots because people were in and out constantly while I was parked next door at Walgreens, but it's the standard Eckerds look.

I'm not sure when the Walgreens went in, but its being there may have something to do with why this Eckerds did not continue life as a Rite Aid.

UPDATE 13 May 2011: Changed the closing date in the post title based on commenter Andrew's research.

UPDATE 10 August 2020: Add map icon, update tags.