Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I noticed on a recent drive-through of Boozer Shopping Center that First Credit on the north side of the plaza is vacant. I can't really find any information on it, but I'm guessing that I went by that storefront a number of times in 2021 without noticing a vacancy, so I will tentatively place it in that year.

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I believe I first noticed this storefront adjacent to Very's when it was National-something-or-other, but I don't see anything about that in google. As of the start of March 2020, Regional was in the spot. As 2020 was a bad year for people being able to finance things, I'm guessing the knock-on from Covid took them out, but I don't know for sure. At any rate the slot is now open and available.

Plainly this was some sort of fast food operation before it was a title loan place, but I can't quite identify it from the characteristics of the building. At any rate, North American was there in the last phonebook I have, Feb 2017, and I can't recall seeing the real estate sign out front before, so I'm just going to call the date here as 2020.

UPDATE 20 March 2021: Seems I was wrong about it being fast food -- adding Pearle Vision Center to the post title based on the comments.

This title loan operation was the follow-on to Bojangles at this address. Judging by the comments on that post, Carolina Title Loans opened here in January 2014, giving them a 3+ year run.

I don't have a phonebook with me to verify this, but I believe the Knox Abbott address tagged as the new location was in fact already a Carolina location, making this more a consolidation than a move.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I could be wrong, and perhaps this place will re-open as tax season rolls around, but right now, it looks pretty defunct, with the furnishings completely stripped, a real-estate key caddy on the front door and abandoned televisions piled on the front stoop. The only ambiguity is that the marquee has not been taken down..

UPDATE 11 October 2018 -- This place is now a hand car wash:

I have noticed this little strip on Decker driving by over the years, mostly because of Piper's Hair Care uwhich I never could quite figure out if it were closed or not. (It was). Now the whole place is empty and for let.

It's certainly not the worst looking real estate on the corridor.

UPDATE 17 June 2021 -- This place has now been gutted:

Also adding map icon.

UPDATE 15 September 2021 -- remodeling continues:

Checking my phonebooks, I see that Advance On Checks goes back at least to 2005, which really surprised me as I had not noticed in all that time that Hursey's Trading Post was gone. I never stopped in there, but I remember the signs that cheerfully promised loans on any item "except guns".

The real estate listing says this little building at the southwest corner of Two Notch & Beltline dates back to 1960, and looking at it, I can believe that. I also believe it must have been some sort of restaurnat at one time, but I have absolutely no memory of what it might have been.

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Here's another Cash-O-Matic, this one in a nice little brick building on Broad River Road next to the old George's Book Exchange.

Unlike a lot of small businesses on Broad, this building was not an old converted house, but I'm not able to guess what it in fact was (since clearly it predates Cash-O-Matic).

I have to say once again, that I really like the name which has a certain rat-pack snap to it.

One more empty storefront in Columbia's volatile payday lending market, this little cash advance outlet was in the same (Family Dollar) plaza as this Coin Laundry -- I'm not sure why the street address here is 1807 instead of 1735, but that seems to be the case.

UPDATE 17 Sept 2014 -- Oops, I misplaced where I took this -- it is *not* in the Family Dollar plaza, but a little further up towards Two Notch.

I first noted this location on Two Notch near Baskin Robin when it was empty after having been Express Check Advance. Since then, Moneygram has started up, and now, vacated this little storefront.