Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The ATM on this site was rather odd, in that it was a walk-up ATM not associated with a branch bank, like a survival from another era. The only other one like it that I can think of is on Greystone Boulevard.

I'm not sure what the fencing around the site signifies. Perhaps they plan to replace it with a more conventional drive-up machine. At any rate, I think the current next closest location is the drive-up beside the former branch below Tram Road.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

If you look in the left corner of the second picture (which was taken for Tripps Fine Cleaners), you can barely see St. Francis Catholic Shop still in operation. As commenter Tom mentions, their website shows them as having closed on 19 September 2020 (with a nice little message of hope and faith).

Looking at the sign for St. Andrews Square, I can't help but notice they don't update it very often. The St. Andrews Newsstand has been gone for many years, Tripp's has been gone nearly a year, and now Catholic Shop. I haven't done an inventory on the rest of the marquees, but it wouldn't surprise me if more are out of date.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

Aladdin occupied the spot formerly allocated to the Saint Andrews branch of Capitol Newsstand, and was apparently more of a grocery than a restaurant, at least according to both their name and their Yelp reviews.

I had thought they had closed several years ago, but I see they listed in the 2018 phonebook, so I will say "2018" for the closing date. They have been replaced by one of the inexplicable raft of new crab restaurants in town.

UPDATE 21 November 2020: Updated tags

As mentioned by commenter Andrew, Tripp's Fine Cleaners have closed their Saint Andrews Road location. Looking at their sign, I think the closest next location to here is probably the old Piggly Wiggly location on Lake Murray Boulevard.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 21 November 2020: Updated tags.

UPDATE 25 January 2022 -- Now Greedy Rascals, a hot dog arcade(?):

UPDATE 1 February 2024: Updating tags.

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This was the first location for Piggly Wiggly store number 102.

If I have the story straight, then this store closed in 2001, moved and re-opened in the former Harris Teeter at 4350 Saint Andrews Road (and then closed for good).

After that, the Display Center appliance store moved in, and closed on 30 November 2011, leaving an interesting assortment of items behind.

This location is directly across Jamil Road from former Hilltop Restaurant, and in the same plaza as the former Capitol News Stand.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 4 September 2012: Fixed typo in DC closing date.

UPDATE 21 November 2020: Added map icon.

I wrote about the closing of Capitol Newsstand on Main Street. That was always the flagship and the final store to go, but at one time Capitol had three other branches that I know of. There was another one downtown on the south side of one of the streets parallelling Taylor Street, there was one in Dentsville on O'Neil Court, and this one, now Aladdin on Saint Andrews Road. I may have the order wrong, but I think this one closed after the second downtown store and before O'Neil Court.

I didn't get to Saint Andrews Road that often, but on my few visits to this store, I got the impression that the selection of magazines was smaller, even discounting the foreign language ones the Main Street location had, and that the timely appearance of new paperbacks was less reliable. That could just be an artifact of my irregular observations though. I'm not sure why the store closed, certainly parking and panhandling were not the issues they were on Main Street. I suspect however, that with the opening of Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble on Harbison Boulevard, the market this store served dropped markedly.

UPDATE 21 November 2020: Added full street address to post title and put the name Saint Andrews Newsstand in parentheses as it seems to have been the name used on the plaza marquee. I changed the closing date from "1990s" to "Late 1990s" as I found a listing in the 1998 phonebook. Also updated tags and added a map icon.