Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well, I thought I ought to get these pictures up before they acutally finish the remodeling and have the store open again!

Anyway, this is another Columbia area Burger King being upfitted, and the operation is fairly well along by now. This store is at the the intersection of Bush River Road with I-20, and sits next to Cracker Barrel and not far from Hamrick's. As you can see from the main sign, hiring for the reopening has already commenced.

(Noted by many folks, but I think the initial Hat Tip goes to commenter Homer)

Not sure what happened here, as the location doesn't seem too bad to me, and it has fairly easy access to the Wal-Mart stoplight, but the Raceway at Bush River Road and I-26 has closed. The only site negative I can see is the separate bathroom building, which I personally don't like because there's often a locking hassle and you end up splitting your time at three locations.

(Hat tips to commenters Tom & Frank)

UPDATE 22 June -- As mentioned in the comments, this place is open again:

UPDATE 27 January 2016 -- This place is closed again:

Barnette's Wallcoverings was at the north-east tip of Boozer Shopping Center, and closed some time last year. It's been several months since I first noticed it closed, so it wasn't too near the end of the year, but on the other hand they are in the 2013 phonebook, so it can't have been too near to the start of 2012 either.

It seems to me that 2012 saw a lot of turnover in Boozer, and while they did get some new tenants, I think that there are more vacancies than usual.

UPDATE 8 May 2014 -- It's now Sissy's Furniture:

As I've said here before, we used to eat at Shoney's all the time when I was growing up, and when they were still affiliated with the Big Boy brand. The Hot Fudge Cake was always a special treat, and there were free comic books for us kids. The chain lost its way sometime in the 80s, dropping Big Boy and trying to branch out into areas they knew nothing about, like running motels..

The Columbia stores gradually started closing, with Beltline, Charleston Highway, Forest Drive and Two Notch all gone by the time I moved back to town.

This location, across from the old Kmart has seemingly been in trouble for years, as they stopped serving dinner and were open only for breakfast and lunch. As the marquee farewell message mentions, the two stores left are the Garners Ferry and Airport Boulevard locations. I haven't been in the Airport store for 20 years or so, but I've been to the Garners Ferry location several times recently, and find it rather neutral -- neither particularly good nor particularly bad. As commenter Andrew has posted, the chain has now hired a turnaround CEO to try and get the brand back on track. I wish them well, and suggest trying to make up with Bob..

UPDATE 18 September 2013 -- As mentioned by commenter Andrew, this place is leased, and is to become a Cook Out>

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 19 April 2016 -- As mentioned by commenter Andrew, here is the excavator on the Shoney's lot:

UPDATE 10 May 2016: Some pix of the cleared lot(s) through traffic:

UPDATE 17 May 2016 -- A couple more pix of the vacant lot, though still not very good ones:

UPDATE 28 June 2016 -- Construction on the Cookout continues:

UPDATE 10 July 2016 -- Siding up now..

UPDATE 10 September 2020: Update tags, add map icon.

I noticed before the Holidays that health food store Nutrition Warehouse in Boozer Shopping Center has moved from the south side of the plaza to 1621 Broad River road in main strip on the north side. Apparently in their old location, they had two adjacent storefronts, as you can still see the label-scar on the unit to the right of the one with the very visible sign.

Along with the move, they have added a Contract Post Office, so the loss of Broad River Road UPS Store is now more or less made good. Their second location, on Forest Drive by the new Pasta Fresca location also has a CPO, and I've found it convenient several times despite the fact that it's just a stone's throw from the Trenholm Plaza post office. Every time I've walked in with a package, there's been no line whatsoever.

This real estate office was almost at the intersection of Broad & Bush River Roads just past Boozer Shopping Center.

As I found taking these pictures, it's a bit of a hard spot to get into and out of, with a pretty steep parking lot (I bottomed-out coming out of there) and lots of traffic to turn across if you're coming from the Graystone side. I suspect the real estate market had more to do with this closing than the parking lot though.

This ladies' shoe store in Boozer Shopping Center apparently set up shop in July of 2011. I'm not sure exactly when it closed, but the storefront was papered over by the time of this 31 May 2012 shot.

I have to admit I was not really aware of The Village Gourmet, but according to the nice little note currently still on their web site, the place had been there over 17 years. I have to say the lunch menu looks quite good, and I wouldn't have minded trying a grilled four cheese croissant at all!

It looks as though another eatery is already setting up shop in the space, Spork Food And Beverage Cafe.

(Hat tip to commenter Jason)

This 24 hour gym was in Boozer Shopping Center on the Bush River Road side just a few slots down from Dunkin' Robbins. This is not too far away from the former Curves gym on Colonial Life Boulevard.

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