Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I have written about Pier 1 Imports before and don't have much to say about this store. I think I was inside once some ten years or so ago. The whole chain is in bankruptcy now and all the stores are shutting. Wikipedia says they are still hoping for a buyer to keep the online side of the brand alive, but to me that seems like a longshot.

UPDATE 16 September 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments, now, temporarily a Spirit Haloween:

As I have mentioned before, my mother, who had a taste for the odd & exotic, used to stop in at Pier 1 from time to time while I was growing up. Since that time, I believe I have only been in a Pier 1 once, and I have never been in this Harbison location.

This store is in an outbuilding by the Outback wing of the Harbison Court shopping center, which I used to visit fairly frequently for Barnes & Noble.

The State has the story on the closing, mentioning that the retailer is closing about half of its 900+ stores. So, say, that's more than 400 locations, which is a pretty whopping number. The retail apocalypse continues..

(Hat tip to commenter JCB)

UPDATE 30 June 2020: Update tags

UPDATE 22 November 2021 -- Now a Popshelf:

As I mentioned once, I have fond memories of quirky products from childhood visits to the old Pier 1 on Garners Ferry. In recent years, the place has rather fallen off of my radar screen to the extent that I didn't even know that they had had a store in the Sparkleberry area until commenter Andrew mentioned it in regards to the old Dentsville location. The State has a bit of information on the closing -- the main reason given is too many locations for the market.

As you can see from the picture, as of this writing, the storefront is yet another Halloween pop-up store.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 30 June 2020: Update post title ("Pier 1" ==> "Pier 1 Imports") and tags.

I think somebody once commented on the site that this building was originally a Piggly Wiggly, but I can't find that comment right now. I don't remember that, and I don't really recall it being a Pier 1 either, though I think that may have been when I was living out of town.

At any rate, it has been furniture store Hines for a good few years now, and apparently would have continued so if the owners were willing to renew the lease.

That they were not implies they must have another tenant already in mind -- I don't think this is an area where you give up a sure thing on just the speculation that you can do better. I guess we'll see.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

UPDATE 2 October 2019: Based on the comments, I have added Piggly Wiggly to the post title.

UPDATE 30 June 2020: Update tags.

UPDATE 12 August 2022 -- Commenter Jimmy Freeman sends this shot of the building as a Pig saying

This is Piggly Wiggly that later became Pier 1 Imports, the Pig moved next to Kmart then later back to this location when building was remodeled, years later went out of business and Pier 1 opening.

Piggly Wiggly first moved due to church stop letting customers park in their parking lot due to the Pig selling alcohol

(Also added a closing date to the post title, which I had forgotten to do).

UPDATE 13 August 2022 -- Here are two more pictures from commenter Jimmy Freeman. He says he expects some dispute but that it is the same store:

The original location of Pier 1 Imports, or at least the first one that I recall was in the back of the Cedar Terrace shopping center on Garner's Ferry Road, in the space now occupied by a Fred's.

My mother was into "quirky", and interested in other cultures, so we often stopped at Pier 1 if we were in the area. The way I recall it, the store ran heavily to wicker, rattan, and exotic umbrella baskets. As a kid, I cared vary little for the furnishing aspects of the place, but was fascinated by the offbeat food items and cheap import toys. I remember in particular some sort of (Japanese?) candy squares that were wrapped in rice paper, and you ate them paper and all(!). We actually got some of those, but my I could only look in horrid fascination at the chocolate covered ants, which we never did get. I don't remember most of the toys, but I did get a harmonica there once, which was made in China (an actual communist country!) and seemed impossibly exotic with a colorful embossed box, and instructions printed on transparent paper in characters that weren't even in the alphabet, much less in English. I've still got the harmonica and box though the instructions seem to have vanished at some point -- I never did learn to play it..

I think Pier 1 moved to Two Notch in front of Columbia Mall after that, though for some reason we never went there. I think I read somewhere that the chain had fallen on hard times and rethought their concept. I don't believe there's one in town at all now, though I'm sure you could find chocolate covered ants somewhere.

UPDATE 19 May 2009:

OK, the consensus in the comments is that I had the Cedar Terrace location of Pier 1 wrong, and rather than being in what is now Fred's, it was in what is now Sub Station II & Steve-O's, so here's a picture of that storefront:

And as long as I'm posting a picture of it, I'll give you my Sub Station II story, even though it hasn't closed. At some point in the 80s or 90s, I went to lunch with my sister, and as she lived fairly near to Garner's Ferry at the time, we ended up in Cedar Terrace at Sub Station II. As it happened, I wasn't really in the mood for a cold sub, and I saw on their behind-the-counter menu board "Italian Sausage Sandwich with Peppers & Onions". I thought Hey! I love those at the State Fair, and I never get to have one anywhere else., so I ordered it.

I should perhaps have been apprehensive as there was no indication of a griddle anywhere, but we went to our table and chit-chatted a bit. I noticed though that the counter person seemed to be dipping something out of a pot behind the counter. A few minutes later our order was called and I found my sandwich to be two soggy boiled links placed in a bun with no condiments of any kind. Great. Well, the sausage was obviously going to be what it was, but Hey, I asked the counter person, where are my peppers & onions?

Oh, that's just what's written on the sign. We haven't had those in years

While I'm updating the post, I should also note I was wrong about there being no Pier 1s in town. There is actually one quite close to the old Garners ferry location at the Woodhill Target complex:

UPDATE 30 June 2020: Updating tags, adding map icon.