Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

It seems to me I have blogged an unusual number of Hardee's closings recently. I'm not sure if that says anything or if it's just coincidence or local conditions, but here's another.

This store is on Parklane, basically in a Columbia Mall outparcel, and not too far down from the local McDonald's. I'm not sure how long it was in this location, but it's been at least since the mid-90s. I do like this google review for the place:

Once got a burger that looked just as good in the ads.

That *shouldn't* be high praise, and yet..

Are there any Red Burrito locations of Hardee's left in Columbia?

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

UPDATE 19 June 2021: Adding tags.

I noticed in my visit to Columbia Mall back in March that there was an empty storefront on the upper level for Frontline Hair Designs.

As it turns out, they have moved, and have been open again since April in their new location at 9557 Two Notch Road Suite H. This is in the Sesqui Center shopping center just east of Spring Valley. You can check out their Facebook page here.

Here's another empty counter in Columbia Mall's food court. I don't know anything about it, but google does suggest that there was a Mano's Express in the Dutch Square food court. It seems an uncommon enough name that I suspect they were related, though the other one seems to have focused on soul food, while this one went the burgers & dogs route.

I noticed when I was in the Columbia Mall food court recently that China Max was closed. It's been quite a while since I was at the mall last, so I'm just tagging the date as 2018 for lack of anything more precise. I presume this China Max was connected with the China Max at Richland Mall, but I don't know for sure.

What I find especially interesting is the sign proclaiming that the place will soon be a King's Pizza. This pizza chain seems to be making a big splash all of a sudden, with a store on Forest Drive in the former Charlie's Wings, one opening here, and one opening in the old Chickadee's Diner on Marshall Street.

According to Wikipedia, which has what seems to be a reasonable summary, Charlotte Russe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 4 February 2019, in the event, no rescue was forthcoming, and the chain announced on 7 March 2019 that it would be closing all its stores.

There are two Charlotte Russe stores in the Midlands. This one at Columbia Mall and another at Columbiana Centre. The Columbia Mall store is centrally located on the upper level, in between the old Dillards and Macy's above the mall's center court.

I'm not sure what's going on with the lights dangling down in center court. I guess they could be leftover Christmas lights. At any rate, I'm sure they would be more attractive if they were lit rather than hanging there dark like that.

Well, this happened sooner than I figured, and this store was completely gone by the time I got around to visiting Columbia Mall.

Of course, it appears to have been a failry small store, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. As you can tell if you click through on the mall directory, Payless was on the lower level just two storefronts down from the former Sears. The storefront to the left of it is also vacant, though I'm not sure what it was.

As a reminder, Payless declared bankruptcy on 14 February 2019 and all the chain's stores have closed or will be closing soon.

Kaboto Express was the follow-on in this storefront to Schlotzsky's Deli, and opened around September of 2011.

I notice that their initial signage did not include the phrase Hibachi Grill, and I wonder if they just weren't finished putting up the sign, or if that was a later direction shift.

(Hat tip to commenter brian)

UPDATE 13 March 2019 -- Work is on to open as Slice Of Columbia pizza:

UPDATE 7 February 2020 -- Slice of Columbia is open (and has been for a while):

As mentioned in the comments by several people, Burlington Coat Factory is closing their Columbia Mall store to relocate to a newly built building at Village At Sandhill. The final sale has now started.

Burlington occupied the first floor of the former Columbia Mall J C Penny location after Penny's itself moved to Sandhill (I don't appear to have done a closing for that for some reason). The second floor was never repurposed and remains vacant. This move will leave that side of the mall without any semblance of an anchor store. In fact, all of the former anchors, save for Macy's are now gone, and Macy's as a chain is having its problems as well. The idea has recently been mooted for Richland County to buy the whole property for offices. I don't know -- I think at this point, razing the buildings, plowing the parking lot and planting trees might be the way to go. Charlton Heston could ride through on a horse..

UPDATE 7 February 2018 -- Here is the new Sandhill building (not yet occupied):

UPDATE 18 June 2024 -- There is some kind of construction happening at the old Burlington. I suppose it's related to the county buying the mall, but I haven't heard anything specific about it:

Also added map icon, and updated post title from "Moving" to "Moved", and gave the mall street address instead of just "Columbia Mall".

As commenter Sidney noted, the Food Court at Columbia Mall is getting rather sparse, though I suppose you could consider Auntie Ann's Pretzels right around the corner to be part of it, which would bring the count up a little bit.

To the best of my memory I have never eaten at any of the restaurants now in the Food Court proper. If I had had to guess just by the name, I would have expected Maleo's to be Italian, but unless there is pizza in the & More, I guess not.

I threw in the current Mall directory, and a few random shots just for "FUN".

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

As I remarked to my sister, they have been closing this store for years. You could say it started when they did away with the roasted nuts counter, part of the classic heritage that had followed them from Harden Street, but that half-joking aside, it was really apparent in recent years that the store was being hollowed out: there was less and less stock, and more and more empty space. It never got as bad as Belk at Dutch Square with a whole floor abandoned, but it was impossible not to notice. Then, several years ago, they decided it wasn't worth keeping the store open for all the hours that the mall was, and you'd find the mall doors drawn during normal business hours. This year, Sears as a whole finally put Going Concern language in their financial report, and when the latest list of store closings came out, I can't imagine anyone was surprised to see this store on it.

The closing of Sears will leave Columbia Mall with only one anchor store, and Macy's isn't looking that robust either lately.

UPDATE 13 September 2017 -- The place is now emptied out, though there seemed to still be a good number of trucks and other hauling type vehicles in the parking lot on 9 September 2017 when these pictures were taken:

UPDATE 29 February 2020: Add tags, address, map icon.