Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I was at East Forest Plaza this evening, and noticed a construction bin in front of Eastern Buffet. Looking online, it appears to have been closed since sometime around February. Apparently there is something happening to the property, at the least all the benches have been pulled out, but to what end is not yet apparent.

Where Ya Bin took over from a similarly themed store, Crazy Cazboys in the fall of 2022.

They have now shuttered this storefront, and are in the process of moving to 817 Saint Andrews Road, which would be the old Kroger plaza. You can read about the move on their Facebook. Currently they expect to open sometime this month (March 2024).

(Hat tip to a commenter Matt)

Here's another Chick-Fil-A teardown/rebuild as they continue to pivot to drive-through centric restaurants. This one is in the Wal-Mart plaza at Forest Drive & I-77.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

I was unaware of this bin based discount operation in East Forest Plaza until commenter Kody mentioned that it was gone. According to The Free Times they closed due to the high cost of fuel as shipping was eating into their small margins. I suspect there may have been more to it than that, but at any rate, they shut down at the start of June.

Interestingly, the same guy who started this chain started the Zoe's Kitchen chain.

(Hat tip to commenter Kody)

UPDATE 26 September 2022 -- Now the conceptually similiar Where Ya Bin:

Judging by reviews, this Fatz may have been closed on a temporary basis since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, but now they have made it permanent.

To the best of my memory, this location is the only Fatz at which I have eaten. It would have been while I was living out of town, in the late 1980s, or early 1990s I think, and I was not impressed. I remember distinctly thinking something like Secret Sauce?: Mayo!

Now, I may have come on the wrong night, or ordered the wrong thing, because the Yelp reviews of the three Fatz locations I have looked at (this one, the one on Broad River Road and the one in Conway) show plenty of people who used to love the chain. They also show a recent precipitous decline in perceived food quality, service levels and physical plant maintainence. I just guessing here, but there seems to be a viscious circle going on with declining income leading to a decline in the things that bring in income. (By the way, what's up with both Yelp and Google showing reviews in other than newest first order? The recent ones are kind of the most important!)

It will be interesting to see what happens to this location, because while it is at an Interstate exit, it really isn't that easy to get to.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)

UPDATE 25 May 2021 -- This spot is now setting up to be another crab restaurant, The Juicy Crab:

UPDATE 13 September 2021 -- The Juicy Crab is now open in this spot:

I was rather surprised by this closing, although East Forest Plaza has certainly had its share of turnover lately. The chain is pitching this as a relocation as noted in this press release, with the new location being at 2209 West Dekalb Street in Camden. I guess the management team could have relocated intact, but surely for the rank and file, those jobs are gone -- nobody is going to commute from Columbia to Camden.

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad)

Payless filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 18 February 2019, and will be closing all of its stores, which includes three locations here in the Midlands.

This store is in East Forest Plaza at the intersection of Forest Drive and I-77. I don't have it in these shots, but the Fallas in the same wing of storefronts closed late last year as well. I have put March 2019 as the closing date, but the linked article indicates some stores may last as long as May.

I have never been in this store, but I have bought shoes at Payless several times, and they seemed reasonable in both price and quality.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

According to KEYT, the parent company of Fallas (and of Anna's Linens) went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August of 2018, with store closings starting on 9 August:

The National Stores, Inc says that they have also suffered financial setbacks from certain underperforming stores and that this has been exacerbated by severe weather in various regions, such as Hurrican Maria which resulted in prolonged, temporary closures to damaged stores and loss of revenue. The Company says they also suffered further financial losses resulting from the acquisition of Conway Stores. The strain on liquidity was worsened by the aftermath of the Company's data breach as access to operating funds diminished.

Apparently that didn't help much, and this store, which survived the initial wave of closings was put on a new list of closings starting 12 October 2018:

National Stores will begin a store closing sale at 184 of its remaining locations today. The store closing sales are being conducted by a joint venture consisting of Hilco Merchant Resources, Gordon Brothers and SB360 Capital Partners. The specific stores that will be closing are currently branded as Fallas and Factory 2-U stores across 12 states and Puerto Rico. The store closing process is the result of the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing by National Stores, Inc. and certain of its affiliates. As part of the restructuring, management at the retail chain has conducted a store rationalization process resulting in the shutdown of these specific stores.

Aside from this store, the South Carolina stores affected are Factory 2U stores in Spartanburg and Sumter.

This is the second time East Forest Plaza has been hit, as the Anna's Linens here closed due to bankruptcy in 2015. It's not clear to me if Anna's was owned by The National Stores at the time, but I don't think so. If that be the case, picking up the defunct chain can't have helped the new owners any..

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Well, here's the latest McDonald's to undergo the chain's current style makeover. This one is at East Forest Plaza, the Wal-Mart anchored strip at the Forest Drive/I-77 interchange.

In general these upgrades have been going pretty quickly, so I don't expect them to be shut for long.

I do have to say that I have found this store to be hard to get in and out of from Forest Drive. I've gotten coffee there a few times, but have kind of crossed it off my list.

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On my way to an appointment recently, I noticed that the Regions Bank branch in East Forest Plaza (the Wal-Mart shopping center at I-77) is now vacant. This is another sign of how banks are continuing to shed branches as more and more business is done over the Internet. I can see why this one was a candidate, as the place is rather hard to get in and out of. If you are not already going into the shopping center you might well think twice.

With the recent closure of the Sandhill branch, I believe this leaves Regions locally with only the main location on Gervais and a Harbision branch. Hmm, actually I don't see the Harbison location on their web site, so that may have closed too -- I'll have to take a look.

UPDATE 10 October 2017 -- Adding SouthTrust to the post title based on the comments. SouthTrust was acquired by Wachovia in 2004, so that would have been gone by 2005.

UPDATE 20 January 2021 -- This building has been torn down and something new is going up there now:

Also adding a map icon.

UPDATE 25 May 2021: The new building is now Time To Shine Car Wash: