Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

When I was taking pictures of Save a Lot on Saint Andrews Road, I noticed this vacant corner suite. I had no memory of it, despite having taken pictures there a number of times, but a little digging established that this was a Jewelry Warehouse location. Specifically, it was The State recommending the spot for

a commemorative poster featuring our next-day newspaper and sports section front pages

(of the USC baseball team's national championship) that included the elusive suite number.

If that was the last tenant, this spot has been vacant going on 7 years now.

Here's a wholsale fashion costume jewelry outlet on Decker in the process of closing out. It's just a few units up from the old Columbia Import / Passion location.

Platt Springs road has an improbable number of jewelry stores, but now there is one less, and Lonely Street is in fact a bit more lonely..

According to their ad, Jewelry Warehouse had been there since 1977. Now they have closed their flagship store, and are in the process (which seems a bit protracted) of moving to Parkland Plaza and into the old Parkland Pharmacy location.

Dems House of Diamonds goes back to 1969, and I recall hearing the radio commercials constantly on WIS probably as early as the early 1970s. Of course there is no spelling on the radio, so I always got a kick out of them because, well, Diamonds are sparkly, not dim!. And then there was that whole mental image of a house made out of diamonds.. I guess it helps to be 11 to find all that funny.

I'm kind of surprised to notice that the store was right next to the old Book Dispensary as I went to that store constantly, and have no memory of Dems being there. I guess my eyes kind of slid right over anything jewelry related.

In 2004, Dems moved to 1068 Lake Murray Boulevard, where they are still open as Dems Fine Jewelers.

UPDATE 30 September 2011 -- Commenter Andrew sends this picture of the new Dems location on Lake Murray Boulevard:

This one was a well planned closing. The "for lease" sign, and the "closing sale" signs had been up for a couple of months before this little store, on Forest Drive right next to Bruegger's Bagels, shut down. I'm assuming it closed at the end of August since month-boundries make sense when you have time to plan, though I didn't notice the vacant space until today.

I never went into Jewelry Mart as it didn't seem targetted at my gender or demographic but one of my aunts did stop in once, and mentioned that the staff was very pleasant and she struck up a conversation, actually leaving with the manager's mix-cd of store music after she complimented him on his taste in songs.

I believe that this is the first vacancy for this little strip. It was all built a few years ago, so up until now it has had the original tenants.

UPDATE 2 Feb 2011 -- It's to be Wristwatch Doc watch sales & repair:

UPDATE 14 Feb 2011 -- apparently Artisan Jewelers is the official name (but why not put that on the roadside sign?):

I wrote about this place before, or at least it's main building when I did a closing for Piggly Wiggly Store 62. After The Pig closed, the building became a Gold's Gym which with this demolition moves to the old Sofa Express slot at Sandhill (apparently with plans for the old Ashley Furniture Homestore storefront as well).

As of Sunday 20 June 2010, the site is in sort of an odd state. From the front it almost appears untouched, but most of the back side has already been completely gutted or torn down, leaving the facade as sort of a potemkin shopping center.

According to commenter "mg", Dick Smith Nissan will be locating here eventually.

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Tweeter was a Circuit City-like store on Harbison Boulevard in a Columbiana Center outparcel. I only went in the place once, and I'm afraid that it worked itself onto "not a great place" list for reasons mostly (but not entirely) beyond the staff's control. I forget exactly what I was looking for, or if it was just browsing, but the store was fairly crowded, and apparently a salesman at the car stereo speaker kiosk had just been asked by a customer to put in the customer's CD to see what it would sound like on the Tweeter's speakers. Mistake: suddenly the entire store was filled with the loudest possible Gonna F*** my B**** after I slap her up rap song imagineable. There were several parents with kids in the store and I saw them cringe. Granted the staff was blindsided, but they should either have thought about incidents like that beforehand, or at least have acted more swiftly in the event. I have no problem with whatever you listen to, but there are times and places.

Anyway, the whole chain went bankrupt in 2008 according to Wikipedia. I don't know why, but apparently there's not a lot of space in that area of retail. Even the #2 store failed, so I guess it's not a surprise that stores further down the food chain couldn't make it either.

UPDATE 1 March 2010: Sky City also has a post on this Tweeter.

UPDATE 6 January 2012 -- As noted by commenter Andrew, this (drastically remodelled) building is now open as Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry: