Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I was getting gas at the Murphy's in the old Eckerd site at the corner of Broad & Bush the other day, looking at an accident at the stop light when I noticed that this TitleMax was apparently closed.

I didn't drive over there because the intersection was wholly blocked (which is why, I think, you see people turning around in the lot in the second picture), but the sign was definitely blacked out. LoopNet also lists the building as "For Lease" (and has a nice picture), but I'm getting a bit of a conflicting signal from the store's Facebook page, which still has posts from as late as today. Of course they're pretty generic, so they could be pre-scheduled.

Anyway, I think it's safe enough to do a closing, but next time I drive by I'll try to see what the front door says.

UPDATE 23 March 2023 -- Definitely closed:

For some reason I thought I had done this Cash-O-Matic just down from the Triangle City Zesto some time ago. In the event it appears not, though I did get to the ones on Broad River Road and Sunset Drive. As nearly as I can tell, this one closed down sometime around 2015.

I admit I still like the name.

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.

UPDATE 3 march 2023 -- As mentioned in the comments, this place has been razed and is being rebuilt as a Freddy's:

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:

UPDATE 30 September 2022 -- Apparently after the rebuild, this will be newly branded as Plaza Del Sol, and and insurance agency is already slated to feature:

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.

UPDATE 21 June 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.