Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

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.

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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.

Anna's Linens replaced (after a hiatus) Lifeway Christian Stores in Harbison Court in late 2011. Now some three plus years later, they are gone as well, and Harbison Court is undergoing fairly extensive facade work and renovation. On the whole I am impressed with how they have kept the place up and made good such major losses as Barnes & Noble and Officemax.

In the meantime, Anna's still has two Columbia locations, one on Forest Drive and another on Two Notch.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 14 June 2015 -- Five Below is coming along:

I got off kind of on the wrong foot with Rita's as I read their slogan Ice Custard Happiness before walking over from Barnes & Noble and was expecting some rich frozen custard treat. In the event, I ended up with something like an Icee. Looking at their menu, I now see that I should have explicitly mentioned the word "custard" in my order rather than just specifying a flavor. Oh well.

You can see a small portion of the shop in operation in the first picture in the Sesame Inn closing. In the meantime, you can still get your fix across town at the Sandhill location.

(Hat tip to commenter Bob)

Well, if you were reading Columbia Closings Saturday, you'll have noticed that commenter wanda scooped The State by two days on the closing of the Harbison Barnes & Noble.

I'll have to say that this closing is a bit of a surprise to me as this B&N is still open for their standard hours, and always seemed to me to have a pretty good crowd -- I certainly thought that the Richland Mall store, with its already abbreviated hours and declining location would close first.

Of course, though they are still open until 10 and 11pm, you can still see the industry changes that are reshaping the retail (and especially book) market. At this point, Barnes & Noble is sort of an upscale toy store that sells some books. I have to admit that aside from comic strip collections and reference books, I have mostly used this store for show-rooming and coffee these last two years since I got a Kindle. (And while I *can* load BN.com books into the kindle with Calibre, realistically I'm going to end up buying the books I showroom from Amazon..).

Still, over they years, I've bought hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of books from this store, sipped countless lattes and browsed many magazines -- I'll be sorry to see it go.

The State story implies they will be open through the holidays as apparently the lease, which they have decided not to renew, runs out with the year.

What does this mean for Richland Mall? Well, I hope to be wrong, but if this store can't make it, I fail to see how they can continue much longer there either, especially with the closing of TGI Friday's.

(Hat tip to commenter wanda)

UPDATE 26 January 2014 -- Here are some pix from 12 January 2014:

UPDATE 12 February: The windows are now unblocked, and you can see the interior again as shown in these pix from 9 February 2014:

UPDATE 17 June 2014 -- Work on the remodel has started:

UPDATE 15 June 2023: Adding Map icon.

Well, that didn't last too long. On the other hand, I suppose it wasn't intended to since similar exhibitions zip in and out of Jamil Temple fairly often. (Not to mention temporary stores like Giant Book Sale in other unused Harbison storefronts).

Anyway, this liquidation center went into the old Office Depot location across from the Harbison Barnes & Noble a month or so ago, and offered bargins on fashion and electronics. I've gotten some good deals on computer equipment at the Jamil sales, but the trick is to remember that you only go if you actually think you'll buy something, as there is a $5.00 fee just to walk in the door. In this instance, there was nothing much I needed, so I never did.

I see from a sign that the building is still available for short-term leases, so perhaps the lidiquation company (apparently out of Ohio) will lease it again sometime.

This storefront, caty-cornered from the Harbison Barnes & Noble, was originally an OfficeMax. When OfficeMax left South Carolina in 2006, Office Depot took the opportunity to take over the space.

As far as I know, Office Depot isn't in any trouble as neither the Two Notch nor Dutch Square stores seem to be closing, but I guess it was a hard sell to get people to brave Harbison traffic for printer paper and paper clips.

Unlike a lot of store closing sales, this one actually had some good bargains. I got an external DVD drive and a USB drive enclosure for a really good price when I went in to check it out.

UPDATE 12 September 2012 -- The place is now a liquication outlet. This seems to be similar to the kind of event sometimes hosted by the Jamil temple where you pay an entrance fee and then look for bargains on electronics and other items. When I went by a week or two ago, the door fee was $5:

UPDATE 1 May 2013 -- It's now Golfsmith:

LifeWay is a commercial outreach of the Southern Baptist Convention and their stores sell Bibles and church supplies. This one moved from the Barnes & Noble plaza on Harbison to Bower Parkway sometime in the 2000s. I know it's been more than a year ago as the first picture is from October 2010.

The little corner area where LifeWay was is kind of interesting as it has sort of an entrance corridor set off by a rather snazzy, filigreed girder. On the downside, being in the corner means that people have to park farther away from your store than most other stores in the strip.

After being vacant for a good while, the suite is finally re-opening as Anna's Linens

UPDATE 11 November 2011: Updated the moving date in the post title from "2000s" to "May 2010" based on commenter Andrew's research.

This storefront is in the same plaza as the Harbison Barnes & Noble and is right next to Rita's Ice Custard Happiness (a place that I had picked to last less than a year, but which seems to be going strong).

I can't ever recall it actually being occupied, but google turns up three former tenants. First was a business called Trade Unlimited, Inc, which was incorporated in 1994 and dissolved in 1998. That's a fairly generic name, so I suspect they also would have had a catchier DBA name.

Next, I think was Sesame Inn JJ, Inc which applied for a beer, wine and liquor license in 2004. Again I suspect they did business as a shorter name. In this case, I'm gussing it was probably Sesame Inn, which sounds like an Asian restaurant.

The final name I have is Jiang Asian Bistro which I take to be the most recent tenant as it is still in some online restaurant guides.

UPDATE 15 March 2013 -- It's now (or soon to be) Wing Nuts:

Rugged Warehouse never really caught my notice while it was in the Barnes & Noble plaza on Harbison Boulevard. I hit B&N fairly often, and Outback and Chili's from time to time, but I guess I never go over to the back part of the plaza. I'm not even sure how long it was there. For some reason I can't find my 2009 phonebook, but it's not in this year's, and it's not in 2008. However, I can't find the Forest Drive store in there either, so maybe I'm somehow looking in the wrong place.

(Hat tip to commenter RM.)

UPDATE 4 April 2012 -- As mentioned by commenter Andrew, Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse is in the offing: