Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I've never been to a Del Taco, and had it in my mind that I would try this one someday. In the event, as happens all too often, I did not get around to it before it closed. The place has already been completely gutted, and is in the process of setting up to be a Taco Bell (which I will almost certainly not be visiting). The building was actually fairly new, with Del Taco being a completely new build after the Clear View Car Wash building was razed in 2014.

I see from Wikipedia, that Jack In The Box bought Del Taco, finalizing in March of this year. My guess is that closing this location probably has something to do with JITB's strategy for the chain.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

UPDATE 26 January 2023 -- Taco Bell is now open in this spot:

Sumter based Willie Sue's was the follow-on in this building to breastaurant The Tilted Kilt, which was the follow-on to Huller's Black Forest, which was the follow-on to Sticky Fingers, which was, I believe, the first tenant.

These pictures were taken on the closing day, 18 September 2022, and I have to say they went out with a bang, as the parking lot was quite active.

Their Facebook announcement simply cites "circumstances beyond our control", and the story at The State doesn't really give any more information.

(Hat tip to commenter Ellen)

Judging by their Facebook and web site, HandPicked,Inc. looks to be a fashion, jewelry and Gamecock & Tiger store. Their Harbison location was in the Publix & Target part of Columbiana Station by Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and has now closed, apparently with the hope of opening at another Harbison area location at some point in the future.

In the meantime, they maintain a store in Lexington, and an online presence.

(Hat tip to commenter Ellen)

The Harbison Chick-Fil-A is getting the remodeling treatment that several locations in the area have gone through. In this case, that involves a complete razing of the existing building (already done) and rebuilding on the same lot. The State has the details:

In 2021, the Columbia Planning Commission approved the demolition and reconstruction of the Chick-fil-A at 294 Harbison. Documents filed with the Planning Commission indicated the original 3,844-square-foot restaurant building on the site would be demolished to make way for a 4,345-square-foot building. There also would be a new multi-lane drive-thru on the property, no doubt a key addition at a site where customer car lines can be long in the popular shopping district.

If all goes well, they plan to re-open this fall.

(Hat tip to commenter Sean)

Mr. PC has several area locations. This one was on the upper part of Harbison in a little strip housing a Jimmy Johns. Mr. PC itself was around the bottom corner on a lower level and not very visible from the street or parking lot. It was kind of an unpleasant rainy day, so I didn't get out to get any closeup pictures, but you can just about read the logo if you imagine the railings aren't there. In the event I went there with a broken no-name android tablet from one of my neices, but there was no way to get parts for something like that, and she would be better off with something more mainstream.

This building was home to Keller Williams Realty (KW Columbia, SC), who have now moved to 1 Harbison Way.

This LoopNet listing shows the building before demolition and indicates it was built in 2000, so it was not that old. This LoopNet PDF flyer indicates that before the demolition, both this building and the adjacent T-Mobile office at 128 Harbison were for sale. I guess there were no takers for this one.

What is interesting is that they are really basically just one building. There may technically be an additional wall between them, but they are going to have to work carefully to leave the T-Mobile building alone while knocking this one down. I should go back and see how it turned out.

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As far as I can tell, the official way to refer to this parents' chain is buybuy Baby with the two lowercase buys mushed together followed by an uppercase Baby.

Doing a bit of google work turns up surprisingly little about the specific troubles of this sub-brand. The parent company Bed Bath & Beyond, has been hit hard by retail changes in general, and COVID-19 in particular, and has published plans to shut down around 200 underperforming locations. This would leave about 1200 storefronts, so it is by no means an abandonment of the market. CNBC has stories on this here and here. Neither article specifically addresses buybuy Baby though the second one seems to include those locations in with the Bed Bath & Beyond locations.

The company itself is announcing buybuy Baby initiatives with words like renewed and expanding in the text to, at least, give the impression they still have faith in the brand:

'welcome to parenthood' is buybuy BABY's renewed promise to help make the transition to parenthood as seamless as possible and invites all customers into this new community—which is designed to support parents with the guidance and advice that's best for both them and baby.

buybuy BABY's renewed purpose is part of its parent, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., to transform the business around the customer as a digital-first, omni-always retailer. The Company last year introduced digital services such as Buy Online Pickup in Store and Curbside Pickup, along with Same Day Delivery, and continues to innovate to put digital purchases into the hands of buybuy BABY customers even sooner.

Be that as it may, *this* store in the old Circuit City location in Harbison *is* closing, and has started the final sale.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 15 June 2023 -- Apparently setting up to be a Planet Fitness:

This BB&T is on an outparcel of the Total Wine & More shopping center at the intersection of Harbison and Columbiana. I'm not exactly sure when they closed, but the last google review is from November of 2020, so I'm going with "Late 2020" until I hear differently. Although I do not have a BB&T account, I do have their Visa for the tenuous historical reason that a bank chain they once bought had a branch near my apartment in Fayetteville. It's always been well handled, and I don't think I've ever had the occasion to step into one of their branches. I certainly hadn't been to this one.

I believe this brings the number of fairly recent Harbison area bank closings to three, with this one, Region's Bank, and Wells Fargo.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 19 September 2022 -- The building is gone and apparently a carwash is setting up:

UPDATE 26 January 2023 -- The carwash is coming along:

M Kitchen was built on the site of the old Steak 'n Shake after razing that building, and is part of the peripatetic Myio's empire.

As of 27 June 2021, this location is closed, with the staf moving to Bower Parkway

(Hat tip to commenter Mitch)

I don't recall ever eating at a Salsarita's. Moe's has mainly been my go-to for this category, and Qdoba & Chipolte have always disappointed. At any rate, judging by the google reviews, this location closed around March of 2021. It was apparently intended as a temporary thing, but once the signage comes down, I think you can mark it as permaent.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

UPDATE 30 September 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments to become an Uberrito Fresh Mex: