Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Back on 20 April, I decided to finally see "Logan" before it left first-run theaters. As it happened, I was at the beach, and as also often happens, the Myrtle Beach theaters had their own notions of what was "current". In the end, I had to run to Conway to catch the show.

As I overplanned the transit-time, I had a few minutes to drive around the shopping area near the theater, and the Radio Shack above caught my eye. I knew they had had a second bankruptcy by then, so I wasn't surprised to see it closing, but the chain kind of slipped out of my mind again after that, and I didn't really have any idea how things were proceding. 'Not well', is the answer:

Over the Memorial Day weekend, RadioShack—which filed for bankruptcy twice in two years—closed over 1,000 stores, leaving just 70 corporate locations and 500 dealer stores in operation across the U.S. Throughout the weekend, the consumer electronics retailer announced a liquidation sale that played out on social media. Social media represents a new plot twist for America's dying retailers: How do you toast a brand's final days when the world is watching?

RadioShack opted for unadulterated bleakness. The company's social media handle on Twitter shared photos that depicted the sale of store fixtures, $25 grab bags stuffed with items pieced at $5 apiece, and deeply discounted printers. Here are some tweets that highlighted the carnage.

Take that in for a second. I don't know if it's more surprising that they still had over 1000 stores, or that they closed over 1000 stores in a weekend, but it's impressive in its own grim way.

The dealer stores will probably make do; I think they are mostly small market independant electronics stores that basically use the Radio Shack affiliation to signal that they're a step up from Uncle Bob's convenience store that has phone chargers. I don't see what the point of a corporate store is at all with just 70 though.

Patrick Stewart deserves a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, by the way.

After after the huge Radio Shack die-off of a year or so ago, the only two Radio Shack locations I could think of that were still open, were this one by Kmart in Lexington, and one in Murrells Inlet. Now that this one is going, I will have to keep my eye on the Grand Strand location.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

Here is the Radio Shack in the Wal Mart complex at the old Bush River Mall site.

I see this storefront has already attracted another business: Laptops For Less. It's a little odd that the Radio Shack marquee is still up there. Usually a chain which is still in some form of existence wants their logo off of former locations. And there *are* still some open stores though the present continued existence of RS as an entity is pretty tenuous at the moment.

Well, here is this week's closed Radio Shack.

This one was on Two Notch Road in front of Target, and can't have been helped by being so close to Best Buy though I believe this store predates that. In the event, I don't believe I ever shopped this store.

I don't believe I ever went into this Radio Shack in the Food Lion plaza in Five Points. Come to think of it, I don't believe I've ever been into any business in this plaza other than Food Lion, unless you go back far enough to count Peaches and Sears.

You know the drill about Radio Shack by this point.

Another day, another Radio Shack. Sic transit gloria mundi.

This one is in the Wal Mart plaza at Forest & I-77, and is I believe the same operating unit that was originally in a free-standing building near the current Forest Drive Rite Aid and then in Trenholm Plaza. If so, this is the Radio Shack that I historically cut my teeth at. I used to take tubes to be tested at the freestanding location all the time, and bought (or talked my parents into buying) a number of hobby kits there. Later, I was a member of the Battery Of The Month club at the Trenholm Plaza location, and got what I call my "lucky" screwdrivers as a free BOTM gift there. ('Lucky' in that I've had them for over 30 years now, and have never lost or broken them -- yet). I remember I used to manage my BOTM days so that I could get one battery on the last day of a month, and then the next day, get another on the first day of the next month. [This was important since, a) it always took at least two batteries to do anything, and b) I never had any money]

I don't believe I ever actually went into this store after it moved to the current location. By that time, I was living out of town, had enough money to buy batteries, and had bid adieu to vacuum tubes.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Another day, another Radio Shack.

This is the one in Parkland Plaza in Cayce, and is another casualty of the chain's bankruptcy.

UPDATE 14 March 2015 -- Gone:

Well, it's been all over the news, but this is the first Radio Shack I've driven past since the bankruptcy announcement.

This store is in Woodhill strip at the top of the lot, parallel to Garners Ferry. I've actually been inside several times over the last year, once for a AC adaptor, once for some CD-R media and once for something that currently slips my mind. The product mix is now a far cry from the old parts & kits era, or even the TRS-80 era, but still I can't see that another Sprint store is really an improvement.

Radio Shack has been at Dutch Square since the mall opened, though not always in this location. I'm a bit hazy on the old layout, but think the original site was a bit further up the hill towards Tapp's. At any rate, as reported by commenter Andrew some time ago, they have now relocated this store from Dutch Square to the new Wal-Mart plaza, Bush River Village.

I believe this pull-out leaves The Rogue hair stylist as the only store which has been in the mall from the beginning.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)