Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Here's another Chick-Fil-A teardown/rebuild as they continue to pivot to drive-through centric restaurants. This one is in the Wal-Mart plaza at Forest Drive & I-77.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

Rick's was a fishing and ABC store right across Bluff Road from the Columbia Industrial Park. I never went in, but I would see it often driving to and from work a few years ago. This is right next door to the old Cricket Club/Diamonds and the old Grasshopper Club/Vet's Hall. I'm not sure when they closed, but it's been long enough to board the place up and take down the road sign, so I'm going to guess 2020.

Here is one where I just kept misplacing the pictures over and over. I observed back in 2013, when the first photos were taken, that this McDonald's on the Charleston Highway near the junctions with I-26 & I-77 still had the boxy kids' play area architecture. Since I like that look and knew that the chain was phasing it out, I took some pictures. And, indeed, at some point after that, they remodeled and dropped that look completely. The problem was I kept taking pictures of the new look and forgetting to do anything with them while they were still near the top of the stack. Finally when I did the Lazy Llama closing I took some more and remembered before I lost track again.

I have to admit I have not really eaten at a McDonald's in years, but they do now have a quite good cup of coffee.

Well, I had to go out to mail something the other day, and decided I might as well check out the Steak n' Shake in Blythewood.

There has already been some discussion of this in various comments, with commenter Sidney putting this down to the classic real-estate trifecta: Location, location, location!. I'm sure that has something to do with it, but I believe the chain is having trouble in general. In particular, I know they exited Myrtle Beach last year and were having lots of problems even before the current mess.

The linked article says they closed 107 restaurants that "could not deliver excellent customer service" in 2019, so something is going on. Wikipedia says they adopted a new franchaise model in 2018, so perhaps that is not working out for them. Apparently some restaurants will re-open as counter-service only operations -- I do not know if this one will be among that group.

I have never eaten at a Steak n' Shake -- Columbia's only other one closed years ago, and has been razed -- but it has always been on my list to try someday. Oh well.

(Hat tip to commenter Shut it Down)

I was rather surprised by this closing, although East Forest Plaza has certainly had its share of turnover lately. The chain is pitching this as a relocation as noted in this press release, with the new location being at 2209 West Dekalb Street in Camden. I guess the management team could have relocated intact, but surely for the rank and file, those jobs are gone -- nobody is going to commute from Columbia to Camden.

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad)

Payless filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 18 February 2019, and will be closing all of its stores, which includes three locations here in the Midlands.

This store is in East Forest Plaza at the intersection of Forest Drive and I-77. I don't have it in these shots, but the Fallas in the same wing of storefronts closed late last year as well. I have put March 2019 as the closing date, but the linked article indicates some stores may last as long as May.

I have never been in this store, but I have bought shoes at Payless several times, and they seemed reasonable in both price and quality.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

According to KEYT, the parent company of Fallas (and of Anna's Linens) went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August of 2018, with store closings starting on 9 August:

The National Stores, Inc says that they have also suffered financial setbacks from certain underperforming stores and that this has been exacerbated by severe weather in various regions, such as Hurrican Maria which resulted in prolonged, temporary closures to damaged stores and loss of revenue. The Company says they also suffered further financial losses resulting from the acquisition of Conway Stores. The strain on liquidity was worsened by the aftermath of the Company's data breach as access to operating funds diminished.

Apparently that didn't help much, and this store, which survived the initial wave of closings was put on a new list of closings starting 12 October 2018:

National Stores will begin a store closing sale at 184 of its remaining locations today. The store closing sales are being conducted by a joint venture consisting of Hilco Merchant Resources, Gordon Brothers and SB360 Capital Partners. The specific stores that will be closing are currently branded as Fallas and Factory 2-U stores across 12 states and Puerto Rico. The store closing process is the result of the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing by National Stores, Inc. and certain of its affiliates. As part of the restructuring, management at the retail chain has conducted a store rationalization process resulting in the shutdown of these specific stores.

Aside from this store, the South Carolina stores affected are Factory 2U stores in Spartanburg and Sumter.

This is the second time East Forest Plaza has been hit, as the Anna's Linens here closed due to bankruptcy in 2015. It's not clear to me if Anna's was owned by The National Stores at the time, but I don't think so. If that be the case, picking up the defunct chain can't have helped the new owners any..

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

As commenter c noted, this Holiday Inn is currently between flags and operating simply as Columbia Northeast Hotel (owned by Mariot, but officially branded during construction).

I drove around the building and did not see any major work ongoing so perhaps the end is near (though there were some romm fixtures in the back lot).

To make matters interesting, the hotel across the street (in the last picture) has recently been reflagged as a Holiday Inn Express, so if you booked this one when it was a Holiday Inn, and you go looking for it in the area, you are going to be surprised..

(Hat tip to commenter AmericanColumbia)

Well, here's the latest McDonald's to undergo the chain's current style makeover. This one is at East Forest Plaza, the Wal-Mart anchored strip at the Forest Drive/I-77 interchange.

In general these upgrades have been going pretty quickly, so I don't expect them to be shut for long.

I do have to say that I have found this store to be hard to get in and out of from Forest Drive. I've gotten coffee there a few times, but have kind of crossed it off my list.

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On my way to an appointment recently, I noticed that the Regions Bank branch in East Forest Plaza (the Wal-Mart shopping center at I-77) is now vacant. This is another sign of how banks are continuing to shed branches as more and more business is done over the Internet. I can see why this one was a candidate, as the place is rather hard to get in and out of. If you are not already going into the shopping center you might well think twice.

With the recent closure of the Sandhill branch, I believe this leaves Regions locally with only the main location on Gervais and a Harbision branch. Hmm, actually I don't see the Harbison location on their web site, so that may have closed too -- I'll have to take a look.

UPDATE 10 October 2017 -- Adding SouthTrust to the post title based on the comments. SouthTrust was acquired by Wachovia in 2004, so that would have been gone by 2005.

UPDATE 20 January 2021 -- This building has been torn down and something new is going up there now:

Also adding a map icon.

UPDATE 25 May 2021: The new building is now Time To Shine Car Wash: