Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Half-Moon Outfitters has moved from its location by Momo's, Tabouli and Za's up to 2912 Devine Street, the former location of Columbia Photo Supply and Rogers Brothers Fabrics.

Along with renovating the the 2912 building, they've also built a very prominent 5KWH solar array mounted on a "tree" in the parking lot. (For some reason, the linked article gives the address as 2920 despite the very clear 2912 plaque on the building wall).

It appears they somehow resisted my suggestion to re-brand as Full-Moon Outfitters when they moved into a larger space..

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Well, this is already getting talked on on Have Your Say, so I may as well go ahead and post early today..

I realize this will get pushback from a lot of folks (sorry Jonathan!), but I never really found the food at Yo Burrito to be as good as the chain burrito stores. In particular I thought it didn't come close to my favorite, Moe's. The burritos always seemed on the dry side to me (particularly the rice), and while they had a lot of different types of salsa, they managed to do that without hitting on one I really liked (and they served it in ridiculously small cups). What I did like about the place was that the service was always friendly, and that they had a nice semi-patio area where you could sit and watch the passers by on Devine Street while sometimes a bird would hop in through the window -- I would do that for Sunday lunch from time to time. That may be possible again later -- note the "Thanks for 9 Years" door sign that says a new restaurant is coming this fall.

I'm pretty sure Yo Burrito started in Charleston, and that's where I first encountered them, at their original location near the College of Charleston Campus. There were famously evicted from there when the college took over the building, but were able to relocate in the same area. As far as I know they are still open in Charleston, but I have not checked..

Interestingly, I "learned" of this closing though my daily perusal of Google Analytics -- software that tells me what keywords people are searching for when they come to the site from search engines. Yesterday I got several hits on variations of "Yo Burrito closed", then commenter south mauldin confirmed it earlier today.

(Hat tip to commenter south mauldin).

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Holy Moley that was a blow! There was debris all over the streets of Forest Acres, the stoplights at Forest & Trenholm and Forest & Beltline were out (and Trenholm Plaza dark), trees in the road on Millwood, and this tree, with downed powerlines, in Shandon just across from Za's pizza.

Going home, I had to turn around and backtrack when I came across this scene:

and then found that of course my power was gone (though luckily I didn't seem to have any trees through the roof). I got power back around midnight so I could actually post this. Hope everyone is OK!

Retail 101, you might think.

I need a gift for this weekend, and thought a pair of binoculars might be nice. As I was eating lunch at Ruby Tuesday, I decided I might as well check out K-Mart since it was right across the street, and on my way home. I didn't really expect a good result, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The place was like an uninhabited cavern, with seemingly about 5 employees in the whole store. The binoculars, as it turned out, were in Sporting Goods rather than cameras and electronics, and the section was completely unstaffed. Of course the half-way decent looking ones were all in a locked case, and totally unmarked as to price. (And all, even the best looking ones, were blister-packed -- Not the "classy" effect I wanted, or as easy to wrap as a boxed item, but I was willing to live with it).

I stood for about 10 minutes with no employees in the area and no bell or buzzer for the counter. When I looked further, there didn't seem to be any employees in that entire quadrant of the store. Finally I gave up and started walking out. As I passed Electronics the guy there asked me if I needed help finding anything, at which point I complained I needed someone to sell me something. He called on the PA for an associate to Sporting Goods, so I went back there and waited another 10 minutes, then left. That's a purchase going to Target, Wal-Mart or at any rate someone else..

Here's another payday loan company that's moved or maybe closed. This one is next to the new Wristwatch Doc location and next to the Applebee's at the corner of Devine and Fort Jackson. The door sign is ambiguous as to what happened, but given that the Chextop location looks to have been there a number of years, I'm guessing that Check World went out of business and sold their accounts next door.

The building itself puts me in the mind of a number of similar buildings around town. One of them, I think, is the Typewriter Exchange on Two Notch, and another is the nearby Dollar General on Beltline though in that case the building is a good bit larger.

UPDATE 11 August 2014 -- The Check World building has been completely gutted:

New location:

Commenter Chiefa mentioned this closing last week, but I am happy to report that this specialized boutique has simply moved to 3308 Forest Drive, beside Richland Mall and in the same strip and just up from the former Wild Birds Unlimited location.

(Hat tip to commenter Chiefa)

UPDATE 2 March 2024: Fixed spelling of 'boutique'. Added map icon and updated tags.

It looks like Elegante Wig Gallery, in the old Electrolux location on Devine Street has closed. I'm the wrong gender (and still have my hair so far..) so there's not much more I can say about it, other than it was not there too long as seemingly it started around 2008.

Here's another quick turn-around story (like Al-Amir). I had only just heard that Conrad's was closed, but when I got around to driving by, it was already open again as Henry's.

I wish them luck, but this building has been ill-starred lately. We've had Tiffany's Bakery, Granville's and now Conrad's in just the space of a few years. Maybe it's the apostrophe.

(Hat tip to someone in the comments -- I can't find the name right now..)

I'm not much of a clothes shopper, so I've never made it to Weathers of Columbia on Devine Street at Woodrow Street, but it looks as if you want to do so, you should do so soon.

Of course, I thought that in 2008 too, and in fact almost did a closing on them then..

This year's sign is a bit more definitively worded, though their web site doesn't have any mention of it.

Here's another floor store that's moved, this one apparently to 610 Beltline Boulevard.

There's been a good bit of turnover on this general stretch of Devine in the last year or so. And it looks like Weathers across the street will be next.