Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Tweeter was a Circuit City-like store on Harbison Boulevard in a Columbiana Center outparcel. I only went in the place once, and I'm afraid that it worked itself onto "not a great place" list for reasons mostly (but not entirely) beyond the staff's control. I forget exactly what I was looking for, or if it was just browsing, but the store was fairly crowded, and apparently a salesman at the car stereo speaker kiosk had just been asked by a customer to put in the customer's CD to see what it would sound like on the Tweeter's speakers. Mistake: suddenly the entire store was filled with the loudest possible Gonna F*** my B**** after I slap her up rap song imagineable. There were several parents with kids in the store and I saw them cringe. Granted the staff was blindsided, but they should either have thought about incidents like that beforehand, or at least have acted more swiftly in the event. I have no problem with whatever you listen to, but there are times and places.

Anyway, the whole chain went bankrupt in 2008 according to Wikipedia. I don't know why, but apparently there's not a lot of space in that area of retail. Even the #2 store failed, so I guess it's not a surprise that stores further down the food chain couldn't make it either.

UPDATE 1 March 2010: Sky City also has a post on this Tweeter.

UPDATE 6 January 2012 -- As noted by commenter Andrew, this (drastically remodelled) building is now open as Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry:

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.

I already posted about the closing of the Two Notch Goody's, and the problems the whole chain was and is having, but I thought it was interesting that the building for the Bower Parkway Goody's, which apparently closed at the same time, has already been re-purposed. Granted these "giant book sale" things usually only last for a couple of weeks or months (though one at the old Waccamaw Pottery mall lasted for a few years), but it's something and it starts today, so you if you head out now, you can get 80% off some out of date computer manuals, and cookbooks by people you never heard of.

UPDATE 18 July 2009: Not its a "liquidation sale" for the next month or so. The sort of $5 entrance fee affair you used to see at Jamil Temple sometimes:

UPDATE 25 May 2010: Change post title to reflect full official name of the store and full street address.

UPDATE 22 Sep 2010 -- Now it's a Halloween store:

UPDATE 24 September 2011 -- It's to be a Stein Mart:

UPDATE 31 October 2011 -- Looks like Stein Mart is open:

UPDATE 10 May 2017 -- Actually I have been confusing 1120 & 1130 Bower Parkway. Goody's, the Haloween popup store and the Giant Book Sale store were all in 1130, most recently occupied by H H Gregg. 1120 where Stein Mart was is a different storefront.