Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

It looks like this old gas station at the corner of Two Notch and Germany Street is vacant again.
T T & B was the follow-on operation to Auto Selection, which was the follow-on to K & C Radiator Center, so the car theme has been pretty consistent.

Well, this is one of the last old-time "service stations" around town. Looking inside is like visiting another age. The "Maps Here" sign is particularly evocative -- there was a time you got your branded highway maps at a service station. I still have a cubby full of old "Gulf" maps, some predating the completion of the 'I' system. That was also a time when we were convinced that gas was *not* a commodity product, and that "Good Gulf" was better than "putting a tiger in your tank" or vice versa.

And a man would actually come out to your car, pump the gas, check your oil, check your tires, check your battery and radiator and wash your windows.

Their sign says they were here for 33 years, which is a good run.

And for context, you can see two former closing in the background: here and here.

UPDATE 16 March 2017 -- Rather Hopperesque:

Another Irmo area note from commenter Homer today:

It's not every day that I need a vehicle serviced so I had no idea that
this business had closed. Tony, the owner, passed away in October and
the family decided not to keep going. I didn't realize it but they had
been in business for 40 years. These guys were top notch when it came to
auto repair. I used to take my old Corvette in there for service and
Tony, Woody and all the guys there always did me right. A lot of people
are going to miss this place!!

I remember a shop in Fayetteville that clearly hadn't even looked at the reason I brought the car in when they called me to pick it up. Always nice to find someone who knows what they are doing!

(Hat tip to commenter Homer, of course)

I made the mistake of driving out to get some shots of former parts shop around 5pm on a Friday, and traffic was pretty bad then. However, the building which sits on the corner of South Lake & Industrial Drives does have stoplight access for the turn, and I imagine that the next tenant, a Vape shop which is outfitting now, will probably do more of an evening business.

Google Streetview has a good shot of the place in operation here

(Hat tip to commenter IrmoJeff)

I noticed that this tire center on Broad River Road was vacant last time I drove by. For now you can see a good picture of it in operation as Buy & Save in Google Street View here.

The sign proclaims that it will soon be another tire operation: Tires & Beyond. Beyond *what* I'm not sure.

I've been meaning to get some pictures of this former JT's location for a while now, but always seemed to be over there at night. For some reason, over the last few years, there seem to have been a *lot* of Columbia metro area car dealerships moving around and JT's moved to their new home at 4838 Sunset Boulevard in July.

JT's Fiat at 5223 Sunset also made the move.

(Hat tip to commmentor James R)

UPDATE 21 February 2017 -- This site has now been sold:

UPDATE 23 August 2017 -- Work has started here:

UPDATE 15 March 2018 -- Almost ready to open as Lidl:

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.