Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This one has been mooted about in Have Your Say for a couple of days now, but Circle K on Bethel Church Road closed today.

This store was once a Kangaroo Express and went to Circle K a few years ago when Kangaroo was bought out. The building is smaller than the new Circle K concept you see in recent construction like Forest Drive & Harbison, plus another convenience store recently opened across the street in the old Ravenwood Pharmacy, neither of which can have helped.

The gas prices were not particularly low here, but I enjoyed the fact that if I filled up here, I didn't have to go out on Forest Drive or elsewhere out of the neighboorhood. I also generally found the ladies at the counter here to be very friendly, and the new coffee machines (as at all CKs) made a quite decent cup.

(Hat tip to commenter Matthew)

UPDATE 12 November 2020: Adding The Pantry & Kangaroo Express to the post title.

UPDATE 18 November 2020 -- As mentioned in the comments, the gas tanks have been excavated as seen in these 17 November pix:

UPDATE 29 March 2023: Updating tags.

This small urban clothing botique is in the storefront that was the final location for Forest Lake TV. It's listed in the February 2015-2016 phonebook(*), and I think I would have noticed it being vacant for many months as I drive by there several times a week, so I'm going to peg the closing as "late 2015".

(*) For some reason I still have not received a February 2016-2017 phonebook..

UPDATE 23 November 2015 -- That was quick! Open again:

UPDATE 1 June 2018 -- Closed again, and for sale:

I just noticed yesterday that Forest Acres Pet Supply & Grooming, next door to the old Powers 60 Minute Cleaners in Ravenwood had closed. This was an independent pet accessories store which had been there a good few years (and outlasted some big box stores like Superpetz).

You can see it in operation in the background of this shot:

UPDATE 21 January 2014 -- Interesting. Commenter Bryan notes a new pet store at 4230 Bethel Church Road, and when I took a look at it, I saw that the name is different, it's Super Starr Pets, but the phone number is the same as that for Forest Acres Pet Supply. That certainly argues for some connection -- perhaps one owner is carrying on after another retired or something like that. Anyway, here it is:

UPDATE 3 February 2021 -- This building and the one next door were razed in December 2020:

Also adding map icon.

Milano Pizza was one of the follow-on operations to the old Piggly Wiggly in the building at 3724 Covenant (which is basically at the corner of Covenant & Bethel Church). After The Pig moved out, the building was subdivided with a Dollar General taking the biggest slot on the left of the building.

The right side of the building, like Gaul, is divided into three parts. Tobacco World tried and failed to open in the middle suite, and Milano opened in the front one. (The rear suite has never shown any signs of life).

Since I like pizza, and it's fairly close, I had put Milano on my mental list to visit, but somehow it never seemed to come together. I do however, drive past the building almost daily, and it seemed to me that the hours were becoming rather erratic lately. I was never quite sure if it was actually closed, or not, but the most recent time I stopped by, I took a look inside and saw that the fish tank was gone, so I'm pretty sure the place is closed though no sign or note has been posted.

UPDATE 3 September 2013 -- Well, it's official:

(Hat tip to my sister)

Tobacco World is one of the spaces carved out of the old Covenant Road Piggly Wiggly after the new Dollar General went into most of the old space.

I believe there are three units on the side of the building closest to the road, and of the three, only Milano Pizza seems to have had a successful start. The signage for Tobacco World has been up for at least a year, but as far as I can tell, it has never (yet) opened, and I suspect at this point that it won't. (The third unit has never shown any signs of becoming anything as far as I can recall).

I don't know what was wrong with the old ones -- I used them just a month or so ago, and they seemed fine, but the Kangaroo Express in front of Trenholm Park (and across from Keith's K&A Automotive) spent several days taking out the old ones and putting in these. Maybe they needed something that goes above $9.99 per gallon..

UPDATE 10 May 2016 -- Well, I'm not going to post about every Kangaroo becoming a Circle K, but since I already had this post, I thought I would note the transition:

Wonder what happened to all the people who paid for the "'Roo Mugs" promotion?

I have to admit I'm drawing a blank on this building. It's on Covenant Road just below the final Forest Lake TV location, and just above the former Danielle Le Shay Gallerie. In fact, google searches on "3618 Covenant Road" turn up the Danielle Le Shay name, but that was 3620.

Anyway I'm sure I've driven past it hundreds of times since 1969 and must have seen it in operation as a number of different businesses over the years, but none of them is coming to me now. I will say that it has a cleaner-ish look to it.

UPDATE 15 Jan 2011 -- OK, I spent some time with the city directories, though I only got up to 1995 before the library closed, but here's what I have for this building:

1970 -1972 -- Powers 60 Minute Cleaners
1973 -- Boland's One Hour Martinizing
1974 -1977 -- Vacant
1978 -- The clock Doctor
1979 -- Vacant
1980 - 1981 -- Brinson's Quality Cleaners
1982 - 1984 -- Vacant
1985 -- Haywood Electrical Corp
1986 -1987 -- B C Bike Inc
1988 - 1990 -- Vacant
1991 -- Jomacies Cafeteria (hard to read my handwriting, but I think that's it)
1992 - 1995 Vacant (I did not have time to check past 1995)

I believe The Clock Doctor is still around in that little strip of trailers across from the Two Notch K Mart.

UPDATE 3 February 2021: This building and the one next door were razed in December 2020:

Also updating tags and adding map icon.

Curiously enough, I wrote about this building just a few weeks ago in a post about Bill DuBose 66 Service Station.

At the time I used a number of pictures, including the first one above, of the current tenant, Keith's K & A Automotive to represent this stylish old building. Apparently almost immediately after I returned to town from my vacation, they experienced a fire and have had to shut down temporarily. I drive by there at least every other day, and from the level of activity I have seen there, they are working to make repairs sooner rather than later.

UPDATE 19 Jan 2011 -- open again: