Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

So, what's Kitty's Korner without Kitty's? It seems kind of counter-intuitive, but in fact this longtime Lexington Hallmark shop has now left its namesake location.

After the closing of a number of other locations, I believe the Seven Oaks store may be the last one left. Commenter Brian supplied the tip, and this link for the real-estate listing.

(Hat tip to commenter Brian)

I don't really get over to this side of Sandhill very often, and I didn't actually remember that there was a Kitty's here. My favorite's were always Hallmark Lite: 1/3 Less Serious Than Regular Cards, and I was disappointed when they discontinued them years ago. I still do like the Shoebox label, albeit not quite as much.

This closure leaves Kitty's without a store in Columbia, though they are still in the Midlands with Irmo & Lexington locations.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

UPDATE 24 August 2022: Updating tags.

The Kitty's Hallmark location at Trenholm Plaza was in exactly the opposite situation of that of their Dutch Square location. In the Dutch Square case, the mall would have been glad for them to stay on, but given the current state of the mall, it didn't make business sense for Kitty's. In the case of the Trenholm Plaza store, Kitty's would have gladly stayed, but according to The State the mall owners think they can lease the slot out at a higher rate. That remains to be seen as I believe there is already a vacancy on that side, but in general they have been successful in "upscaling" Trenholm Plaza over the last several years. It's also an interesting issue with the plaza that it had two Hallmark franchaise stores almost next to each other as Books-A-Million also sells Hallmark items. Of course they have two grocery stores, two shipping operations, three banks and numerous restaurants, so duplication is not a *big* issue..

Anyway, this Kitty's was one of my go-to locations for birthday and christmas cards. While my all-time favorite line was the long discontinued Hallmark Lite brand ("One third less serious than regular greeting cards"), the Hallmark Shoebox line is almost as good, and I've certainly picked up a number there over the years. In the meantime, Kitty's maintains a number of other locations in the Midlands.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 24 August 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.

I believe this Hallmark store in Dutch Square occupied the same space as Browz-A-Bit.

I used to go into Browz-A-Bit all the time, but I can only specifically recall going into Kitty's once. As you may have gathered if you have read a lot of these posting, I'm a big fan of The Beach Boys, and for reasons which probably only make sense to them, they released a CD of live recordings and member solo tracks, Songs From Here and Back exclusively through Hallmark stores a few years back, and I picked up my copy (it's reallly pretty good) at Kitty's.

This story from The State says that sales at the Dutch Square location had declined from a million dollars a year to two hundred and fifty thousand, a decrease of 75%! Given that, I can see how closing the store made sense. Obviously this is bad for the struggling mall though. It's recently lost two national brands with this and Chick-Fil-A closing. On the plus side, it has gotten two new local restaurants, though the re-opening of the D'Avino's space as another pizzeria probably really only counts as restoring the status-quo from a mall point of view.

24 August 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.