Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Ride Solutions was the follow-on operation (after the building was vacant for a good while) to Dentsville Auto Upholstery. I'm not exactly sure what Ride Solutions was -- it sounds like a used car dealer, but I don't recall ever seeing many cars out front, so perhaps it was a garage. At any rate, I noticed the other day that it is closed, and judging from the grass growth, seems to have been for a while.

UPDATE 6 October 2016 -- Here are some shots I just dug up of the place in operation:

I mentioned a while back that this place was a convenience store while I was growing up. Since then, it has been a number of things but most recently a garage of some sort. It's kind of amusing that the building at the top of the hill went exactly the opposite way: from garage to convenience store.

I'm guessing that what happened here is that Advanced Auto Parts bought out Carquest Auto Parts and consolidated this store into their existing location at 7316 Garners Ferry Road. At any rate, I don't think this was an Advance Auto Parts for long, if at all, because the label scars exactly match the Carquest signage visible in this Google StreetView, and Carquest is listed in the 2015 phonebook.

It's curious since I drive this stretch of road several times a week that I have no memory of ever seeing this building in operation as Gandy Auto Sales, but Google Street View has the image, and the phonebook confirms they were there at least since 2008.

There appears to be some sort of land clearing going on in the lot just adajacent to this one on the east.

I remember once finding a whole joke book of "Ford" (ie: Model-T) jokes at my aunt's house once. At this remove, I can only recall two of them:

Q: Why do all new Fords now have to be painted red?

A: Because the law says any tin can filled with gasoline must be red.

Q: Why is the Ford the only car to be mentioned in The Bible?

A: Because no other car can ascend to Heaven "on high".

I'm not sure new cars are better than the Model-T, but jokes have come a long way.

Anyway, as of early May 2016, Dick Smith Ford has relocated from their Two Notch home out to 7201 on the Sumter Highway, the old Marion Burnside and Jim Hudson location:

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I've been misplacing and finding these pictures ever since commenter Rick sent them, but here they finally are. Commenter Rick says:

Ted,

Attached are a few photos of my store at 2941 Two Notch Road when our new sign was going up. It does not show the building very well but in the back ground just past the McDonald's sign, you can see the old Chappy's Fish and Chips sign that you mentioned in your Carzzz 2941 post. You can also see my old 1976 blue corvette that was in the middle bay of the picture I sent from my Five Points location.

I would also note that in the background of the first picture, you can see the old AMC dealership, where I bought the worst piece of junk ever assembled: the 1983 Renault Alliance. Man, was I ever glad to see the last of that marvel of Franco-American technology.

The building on this lot is now a dental office.

Driving down Saint Andrews Road the other day, I noticed that the NAPA parts store formerly across from Seven Oaks Shopping Center has now actually crossed the street and is in Seven Oaks next to Big Lots.

I'm not sure, but the new sign suggests that the machine shop did not make the transition.

UPDATE 23 March 2018 -- This building is now Palmetto Thrift:

UPDATE 23 November 2015 -- That was quick! Open again:

UPDATE 1 June 2018 -- Closed again, and for sale:

I'm not sure when this garage on Alta Vista closed as I can't find it in any of my recent phonebooks under the name on the sign, but I think I would have noticed it before if it were too long ago, so I'm going to say 2015 until someone says different.

As a side note, I never knew the name of this little uphill street which connects Fontaine Road to Shakespeare Road. Alta Vista was the first really useful Internet search engine, put together by the now defunct Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) to showcase their 64 bit Alpha chip. It was very successful, but DEC got into trouble by never fully realizing that the mini-computer was dead and that the PC was a commodity item and went belly up. For some reason, nobody bought the Alta Vista technology (that I am aware of) and the crown passed to Google where it still remains..

UPDATE 6 April 2017 -- Now Royal Automotive:

This tuneup garage in between Bike Street and Prowash was at this location for a number of years, but I'm not sure exactly when it closed or moved. My
phonebooks are sparse that far back, so I can say it was definitely here as of the 1997 book, but by the time of the 2005 book, the listed
address was 2517 Broad River Road, which would be on the other side of Bike Street. However, as you can see in the first photo, t
he signage was still up as of 2010.

Also, notice the same sign in the second picture. The Buy Here, Pay Here verbiage sounds like maybe there was a used car lot on
the property at some point in the interim. Perhaps that black SUV is for sale?

UPDATE 14 March 2016 -- As mentioned in the comments and as shown in this (bad) picture, this place has been demolished and Family Dollar is about to open here: