Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Nothing Held Back

Well, continuing the story from the Toys 'Я' Us post, this is the same thing but in a more advanced stage. The Babies "Я" Us closeout sale has been going since February and is now in the end stages, if this WLTX story is still current.

One thing I didn't mention in the Toys closing is that both business units share a common problem on top of everything else: The US, other Western nations and Japan are currently in a "baby bust" situation. That means even if they could regain their former appeal to the customer base, the customer base itself is shrinking, or as the Four Seasons once said Bye, Bye, Baby, Goodbye!

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew I think)

UPDATE 15 June 2023 -- Now Hobby Lobby:

Also adding map icon.

I noticed on my last trip to Columbiana to get a picture of the American Deli setup that across the food court, Nestle Toll House cafe was closed.

I don't think they are doing a revamp as the one at Sandhill did as they are no longer listed on the mall web site. It's been a while since I've stopped at at Toll House, but my experience has always been that the cookies are quite good.

This has already been discussed, but Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse has closed on Harbison. This store opened in 2012 and replaced Rugged Warehouse (interesting that both names contain Warehouse) which closed in 2010.

As you can see in the final picture, Harbison Court will not lack for shoe stores due to this closing as the adjacent storefront (which was at one time Regency Beauty Institute, though I'm not sure that was the most recent tenant) is being upfitted to become Shoe Carnival.

As mentioned several times in Have Your Say, the Burger King at Columbiana Mall is closed "temporarily". There's not any explanation on the sign making that claim, and apparently it has been several months. Ordinarily after such a length of time, I might write off the sign as wishful thinking, but in this case the equipment clearly has not been stripped, so who knows.

Almost as soon as I got inside to take this picture, somebody pulled the fire alarm, and everybody headed for the exits.

(Hat tip to commenter Deb)

UPDATE 9 October 2017 -- As mentioned in the comments this spot is setting up to be an American Deli so I'm taking the "temporary" off the post title:

UPDATE 6 February 2019: Change the location from "Columbiana Mall" to "Columbiana Centre". Add location icon.

Yoghut moved from its original location near the old Barnes & Noble in early 2014. The new location was on the other side of the plaza, just to the left of Outback.

As you can see from these (mixed) Yelp reviews, it was open until at least 1 July 2017. There is no sign on the door, so I assume that they have now closed rather than again relocating.

The Main & Blossom location is still open.

(Hat tip to commenter Michellle A)

Read the rest of this entry »

I think there was, or is, a Williams Sonoma on King Street in Charleston, and every now and then when I was in town and walking the shops district, I would drop in to see all the neat stuff that would never fit into my non-cooking lifestyle. I think I may have browsed this store too once, though my visits to Columbiana Mall are passing rare.

According to The State this was not a surprise closing, at least to mall management. They also mention that the Market Commons store in Myrtle Beach was closing as well. I'm unsure if that says more about Williams Sonoma or Market Commons which has struggled in recent years. Normally if a company is in trouble there will be some press about it, but all I see is a Motley Fool article citing a stock price fall.

According to the linked State article about the storefront

there’s a plan in place for what we hope to be a huge surprise in 2018

On the one hand, that sounds upbeat, on the other hand, 1 year+ is a long time for a slot to stay empty.

It was the 70s I guess when I first heard of The Limited, as they had a very catchy radio commercial whose refrain was

Look to The Limited!

That aside, I thought the name a little odd. I guess they were going for an "upscale" Limited as in "Limited Edition", but to me the name always brought up associations like "No, we don't have that, we're limited". Not that it really impinged on me either way as it was all women's clothes and I don't believe I ever set foot in any location.

This shop, at Columbiana closed in early January as part of the chain's axing of all its stores. Forbes has the story:

And another bites the dust.

Women's apparel chain The Limited on Sunday [8 January 2017] began closing all 250 of its stores across the United States and is slashing 4,000 jobs, the latest casualty of shopping's move online and the growth of fast fashion chains.

Interestingly, the article does not specifically say the chain is actually in bankruptcy of any chapter..

Golfsmith was the follow-on operation in this storefront to OfficeMax/Office Depot, moving in sometime in 2013.

As this article explains, the firm filed for Chapter 11 in mid September. What went wrong, well, from the same source

But really what went wrong, and what happens next?

To the first point, it’s clear from a read of the Golfsmith bankruptcy filing and those familiar with the company both internally and externally that Golfsmith expanded to its current 109 stores in the U.S. too aggressively, in the wrong way (as far as store formats go) and most likely without proper capital to support such expansion.

....
....

All of which was exacerbated by the fact that--as part of the Chapter 11 filing reads--“the enthusiasm underpinning the ‘Tiger Woods Phenomenon’ significantly waned.”

Apparently Dick's Sporting Goods has acquired at least some of the Golfsmith assets, but I'm not clear from this story whether that is nationally or just in Pennsylvania.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 13 September 2017 -- Now a popup Halloween store, Spirit Halloween:

I had done a closing for the Columbia Mall Hancock Fabrics but had not got around to dropping by the Harbison Court location until this last weekend. In the event, I wasn't able to get a good shot of the place for various reasons, but this store too is part of the chain's ongoing liquidation since their February 2016 bankruptcy and will close soon.

By the bye, the link above also links to this piece which is a pretty exact description of my childhood memories of fabric stores.