Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well, it must be past midnight because Gold's Gym has turned into a pumpkin. (Hey, that's the best I could come up with..)

This is the plaza on Harbison which is just across from the Barnes & Noble / Olive Garden one, and which is anchored by Books-A-Million. I've always wondered a bit about that -- if Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble were exactly equidistant from you, who would choose BAM?

In recent years, it seems these Halloween stores have started to spring up in empty storefronts all over each fall. I believe that last year, there was one on US-1 near I-26, one on Two Notch near the old Circuit City and one at Sandhill next to H Gregg. More power to them if they can make a business of it, and create some jobs -- it still just seems kind of weird to me to make that big a deal of Halloween. (Though as I mentioned last year, being on an escalator under a bevy of 'Naughty Nurses' is certainly inspiring).

UPDATE 14 December 2016: As mentioned in Have Your Say, a new gym, Crunch Fitness is opening (or may be open by this time) in this former Gold's Gym space in Harbison Center next to 2nd & Charles, the old Books-A-Million location.

The CBRE listing for the shopping center gives a detailed occupancy plan. I would not have guessed that many storefronts were vacant.

This is another casualty of the Ritz Camera chain's downsizing. Previously I wrote about the store on Two Notch Road which closed earlier this summer, and was hoping the other stores were safe. Unfortunately the trend seems to be continuing with this, the Harbison area store, closing while I was on vacation in July.

My observations of the Beltline store makes it seem to me that Ritz has almost totally ditched film photography for digital. I found that the last time I was in there and needed a roll of 35mm, they had a smaller selection than either Wal-Mart or Walgreen's. I'm sure this is a deliberate stragegy, and obviously digital is where the market is and where it will be. On the other hand, when you go to an actual "camera" store, you expect some more obscure items than you can find at the corner drugstore, so I'm not sure the strategy isn't a mixed blessing during this final film/digital period of transition.

UPDATE 30 August 2017 -- Still vacant 8 years later:

I've written about D's Wings a couple of times before. The short version is that it's a local chain with a surprisingly large menu (including good grilled cheese sandwiches and raw fries!) that has gone through a rough patch over the past couple of years.

I think this location, on Columbiana Drive just past Columbiana Center, closed at about the same time the Blythewood and Clemson/Sparkleberry stores did, which was around October last year. I don't know the ownership structure of the chain, but I would speculate that there are several owners because other D's locations (Beltline & Parkland Plaza for instance) continue on.

If you've followed this blog for a while, you've come to know one of my photographic weaknesses, and I indulged it fully the evening I finally stopped by this location.

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This one is a bit of a surprise. Since this location outlasted the Columbia Mall location by several years, I figured it was safe. On the other hand, Columbiana Drive has lost both a D's and a Smokey Bones recently, so there may be some stress on the area I'm not aware of -- the only thing I can think of is that it's a pain to get to either from Harbison (two lights from I-26, I think) or Lake Murray Boulevard (a left turn if coming from I-26).

Not being a great rib fan, I never visited this location, but it looks to have been a nice building. The left side appears to have a second story -- was there seating up there or just office space?

(Hat tip, um, just about everybody, but I think Tom was first).

UPDATE 19 September 2022: Editing tags and adding map icon.

I wrote about this building when it had closed as a Goody's and was about to open as a book remainder store.

I finally did get there during the holiday season, and found that I was able to pick up some Disney Princess and other kids books and knick-nacks for Christmas at pretty reasonable prices. I don't have the patience I used to have to comb over every book in this type of store for the odd bargain, but I did pick up a couple of books for myself as well. At the time, the staff wasn't sure how long the store would be open, but hoped it would go into the new year, and I believe it did and a few months beyond that, making a pretty good run for this type of thing. The building is empty again now which can't be great for the area, especially with the empty Circuit City across the road.

UPDATE 15 February 2017 -- Added some pictures of the place in operation.

I'm not entirely sure I have the title for this post right. Googling "201 Harbison" Columbia brings up Popeye's as the most common hit, but also suggests the place may have been Harbison Exxon, or Taco Bell. In fact the place does look like it had gas islands. Was it an Exxon convenience store with an attached restaurant which flipped from Taco Bell to Popeye's perhaps?

I suppose if I paid more attention, I would remember, but I don't eat at either restaurant, and I would never stop for gas at that point on Harbison -- it was after 6 when I took these shots, and Harbison was still a real mess. I had gone out to take some pictures of Circuit City, and it was still really difficult to get where I wanted to go in the area across all the traffic.

UPDATE 17 March 2012: Updated the closing date to "March 2008" based on research in the comments. Also added a note that the attached gas station was a BP in the post title.

UPDATE 26 January 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.

Phar-Mor was a discount drugstore, though perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it was a mini-department store (think Walgreens, but larger) that filled perscriptions. This store on Harbison, next to the Barnes & Noble, is the only one I'm aware of in Columbia (I also know of one that was in Aiken at Aiken Mall). At one time, the Phar-Mor chain appeared to be a category beater, growing faster and bringing in more money than any of its competitors. Unfortunately in the aftermath it emerged that the whole thing was a giant crooked pyramid scheme with the founder cooking the books right and left. The chain went into bankruptcy, and the founder went to jail. I believe the chain struggled on a while after this store closed, but finally went totally under in 2002.

Ross Dress For Less has occupied the spot since Phar-Mor closed, and seems to be doing well. The strip mall seems to have regular turnover of smaller storefronts, but luckily has been able to hold on to (or in this case replace) the anchors.

UPDATE 26 Sep 2010: I've added the full address to the post title. However, while the current address appears to be 287 Harbison Boulevard, my older sources give the address as 272 Harbison Boulevard, so apparently there has been some re-numbering within that plaza.

UPDATE 20 March 2011: Updated the closing date based commenter Andrew's research, also added the store number "0229".

My memory is a bit unclear, but OK Carbs was in one of these storefronts (all different "suites" at 252 Harbison). This is the (generally) horseshoe-shaped strip mall that has Barnes & Noble and The Olive Garden. With the sudden rise to fame of the Atkins Diet and its emphasis on counting carbohydrates instead of fats, it was inevitable that someone was going to figure out (or attempt to figure out) a way to make money off the latest craze. I'm sure there were others in town, but OK Carbs was the one that caught my eye because I hit the Harbison Barnes & Noble fairly often (since, unlike the Richland Mall one, it actually is open during the hours you would expect a Barnes & Noble to be open..). I didn't follow the Atkins diet (my personal belief is that the best diet is eat less & exercise more, not that I follow that one either!), but I always respect someone trying to make a buck off of a trend. In the event, I don't know if they pulled out in time to finish ahead or if they rode it into the ground, but whichever case, OK Carbs, like Dr. Atkins, is no longer with us.