Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Here's another Rite Aid this one where the River Roads come together at Boozer Shopping Center. I am having a little trouble thinking of a Walgreens within a mile of here, which is the usual closing criteria for this transition.

Apparently the LoopNet folks decided they already had a photo on file and didn't need another one -- that's certainly a blast from the past.

UPDATE 20 June 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments, this place has been razed:

Also adding a map icon.

UPDATE 24 June 2021 -- The canopy for the Murphy USA already going up:

UPDATE 11 August 2021 -- Construction continues:

UPDATE 27 September 2021 -- Getting there (picture from 18 September):

UPDATE 26 February 2022 -- It's open:

If you look closely, you can see the Walgreens directly across the street at 423 West Main Street that put paid to this Rite Aid location.

I'm not sure how the other locations are doing it, but it appears this one closed for two days (13 & 14 June) to get ready for a liquidation sale on 15 June. I'm marking that as the closing date, though I suppose it could last several days.

UPDATE 3 November 2020 -- This building was razed some time ago, and construction on a new Murphy's is now well advanced:

Also adding map icon.

UPDATE 6 March 2021 -- Now open as a Murphy's Express:

Not great pix, but here is another Rite Aid which has the misfortune to be directly across the street from a Walgreens (the one at 7412 Broad River Road). It's a decent location, perhaps CVS could move in. Their nearest store is at Saint Andrews Road, so that's really another market. Of course the Publix in the strip behind the store has a pharmacy as well, so there is still a bit of competition there.

The end here is slated for 18 June 2018.

As predicted before, this Garners Ferry Rite Aid has closed due to its closeness to the Walgreens at 7801 Garners Ferry. For a big square building, I think it looks rather nice because of all the brick. There is growth in the area, but I'm not sure I can think of anything that might go into the building. Perhaps a medical office or Family Dollar type store as I have seen both in old pharmacy locations.

UPDATE 30 January 2019 -- As reported in the comments, this is now a Family Dollar:

As we discussed earlier those Rite Aid locations which have been purchased by Walgreens and are close to an existing Walgreens location will be closing. The process has started now, and this store, at the west corner of Two Notch & Rabon Roads will be closing on 13 June. I didn't have a chance to go in, and these pictures through the rain aren't that great, but you can see that signs are up.

How close is this store to a Walgreens?

Directly across the road:

(Hat tip to commenter Megan)

UPDATE 10 July 2019 -- As mentioned in the comments, this is now a Dollar Tree:

This building is directly across the street from the former Budget Inn on Zimalcrest, and apparently housed a mail order pharmacy until late 2015 (judging from the fact that there is a stack of 2016 phonebooks at the front door).

Judging from LoopNet, the pharmacy was the whole building, and the whole building is now available.

I find it a little curious that the CVS in Broad River Centre near Greystone Boulevard has closed. The co-located Food Lion does a good business (and does not have a pharmacy). In addition, there is only one other drug store in the general area, and that's a Rite Aid, and a) It's not that close and b) Why send them customers? (The actual CVS location that prescriptions are being redirected to is way down at Saint Andrews Road, probably not a good alternative for folks in this area).

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 6 February 2019 -- Now Beauty World:

UPDATE 5 July 2022: Update tags.

I don't know anything about Varns Drug Store other than it was listed in Walsh's Columbia South Carolina City Directory for 1907-08, had "E H Varn" listed as the proprietor and is not there now.

Thai On Gervais was obviously many iterations after Varns. I know they listed in the phonebook from (at least) February 2007 through February 2011, but not in Feburary 2012. Given that, and the current state of the space, I think they must have closed sometime in 2011.

Traffic was heavy enough that I could not step into Gervais Street to get a good frontal shot of this place, but you can see from the sidewalk and side views that it has sort of a "work is being done" look. I did not see any permits or indications as to what is next here however.

UPDATE 11 June 2012: Commenter Larry casts doubt on this actually being Thai On Gervais, at least within the time period suggested by the phonebook. I will try to check the city directories next time I am at the library, but for now I am leaving it. (Varn's I am more confident about).

UPDATE 20 June 2012: After consulting city directories at the RCPL, I can say that from (at least) 1960 through 1970, this space (actually 926-930) was Safran's Antique Galleries. After that, it was apparently vacant for a good while. In 1995, it was listed as Arcade Auction (Charlton Hall Overflow) and from 1995 to (at least) 2000, it was I. Pickney Simons Gallery. That seems to have been the last tenant. No city directory lists Thai On Gervais, but that is definitely in phonebooks..

Well, it appears that the old Big-T/CVS at the corner of Pickens & Taylor Streets is once again a pharmacy, as Hawthorne Pharmacy & Compounding Shoppe has moved down the block from its long-time home at 1500 Taylor and into the Big-T building.

Well, that's not quite true as the whole building isn't a pharmacy: It appears that during the refit and remodel, it was split up into two suites, and that one of them is an endoscopy clinic. Since Hawthorne has always been something of a specialty shop, it makes sense that they wouldn't need the space to sell all the extraneous non-medical stuff a CVS does. It will be interesting to see what happens to the old Hawthorne building. As of yet, there is no For Sale sign.

UPDATE 6 October 2017 -- Here is the old building about to be demolished:

and here is the hole where the building used to be:

UPDATE 8 May 2018 -- A new building is going up here:

I never heard G-E-X pronounced Gee-Eee-Eks as the spelling here would imply. It was always just "Gex" to rhyme with "Vex". Not that I heard about it that often. Given the 21 Dec 1969 phonebook listing (ie: for 1970) above, it sounds like it was a Costco or Sam's before its time -- certainly we did not have a membership, and I never went with anyone who did. (There are some pictures of the membership cards here.)

The building (behind Applebee's just North of I-20) is certainly massive, and it seems to have had a department for everything, including groceries and meat, which really makes it sound ahead of its time. Wikipedia says G-E-X was another label for G.E.M the Government Employees Mart and that the electronics department eventually morphed into Circuit City by way of Ward's. The December 1972 phonebook is the last one to list the Columbia G-E-X which meshes with Wikipedia's claim that the chain went under "during the discount store shakeout of 1973".

After G-E-X the spot seems to have been a number of different operations including Home Quarters and Blue Cross. In fact, LoopNet says Blue Cross has a lease on the whole building that lasts until September 2012. Currently the building seems to be empty, with the last branding on the street sign as Palmetto GBH which seems to be some sort of Medicare related operation (their sign is still on the storefront in the LoopNet listing).

UPDATE 21 March 2011: Added "Intertec Data Systems" & "Phar-Mor" to the post title. Those apparently closed in the early 1980s and 3 October 1992 respectively. (Also fixed spelling of Applebee's..)

UPDATE 6 April 2011: Added the 1970 Bellsouth Yellow Pages ad for the pharmacy department (which apparently was open to the general public).