Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Here's another Long's Drugs, this one in Hopkins not far from Lower Richland High School.

The story is the same for all Long's locations: The chain decided to exit the retail pharmacy business.

I had not realized there was a branch of Richland Library in this strip. I believe it must be the smallest location in the county.

Footaction was on the lower level of Columbia Mall at the foot of the winding staircase, underneath the old Lowery Organs location, across from the former Radio Shack and adjacent to the former JC Penny.

According to their door sign, Footaction had initially closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, but rolled that into a permanent closure at some point, and they have already stripped the store. As reported by commenter Rashaad, the other Footlocker brands have also left the mall, and will probably feature here in due course.

As an aside, social distancing is not an issue at Columbia Mall:

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad)

Mostly you should not expect many "new" closings during this odd hiatus, and this is no exception:

This GNC was in the Walmart center on Bush River Road. I'm not sure when it closed. I have looked back several years in phonebooks, but don't see it listed. Unfortunately, I did not get a book last year or this, so it could be very recent. I will just say 2019-ish for now.

I never did a closing for Zale's Jewelers, but it was a long time occupant of this second level storefront, just out of Macy's going left. After that, it was Jimmy Jazz for a while, as you can barely see in the second picture above. Most recently, it was an airbrush shop for tee-shirt customization. Judging by the google reviews, they did a good job, but were gone by sometime in the late summer of 2019. I'm not entirely sure, but it looks as though they may still have a location elsewhere in the area.

I didn't go there too often, but I liked Earth Fare. It was kind of in between The Fresh Market (one of my main go-tos) and Whole Foods, but without being obnoxious like Whole Foods.

As The State reported, the chain announced on 3 February 2020 that they were going into liquidation and closing all stores:

In a news release Monday, the Asheville-based company pointed to “challenges in the retail industry” that have kept the company from expanding and improving and have hindered “its ability to refinance its debt.”

“As a result, Earth Fare is not in a financial position to continue to operate on a go-forward basis. As such, we have made the difficult, but necessary decision to commence inventory liquidation sales while we continue to engage in a process to find potential suitors for our stores,” the company said in its release.

As of yesterday (16 February 2020), the store was still open, but I did not go inside to see how picked-over it was.

Well, Victoria's Secret has sashayed out of Columbia Mall. Interestingly (or not) theirs is the second store-locator website I have visited lately that is very parsimonious about listing stores (though it is inspiring in other ways). At any rate, locally there are remaining stores at Sandhill and Columbiana.

I find the mall self-promotional poster interesting in that not only did they not take it down when Victoria's left, but in that it still touts Charlotte Russe, which has been gone for about a year now. I have not seen anything about the County plan for the property lately. It seems like whatever they are going to do, they should start it soon.

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad Egister)

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)

Google calls Cost Plus World Market a "furniture store". I had never thought of it that way. The only time I went inside this (or any World Market), I was attracted by the food aisles, and didn't really notice any furnishing. Indeed, I think the only thing I've ever had from the chain was a gift of some exotic chocolate bars one birthday.

Commenter Rashaad Egister pre-called this closing back in September of 2019. Apparently World Market was bought by Bed, Bath & Beyond back in 2012, and is caught up in a round of closings for that chain.

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad Egister)

UPDATE 29 January 2020: Added the first two daytime pictures from 6 October 2019 at top.

The last time I was at Sandhill, this frame shop in the Bi-Lo wing, was planning to work through the holidays and close at the end of the year. With H. Rubin and Rita's, there are now a number of vacancies on this side.

There is a beachwear store in Surfside Beach that has been Going Out Of Business since about 1985, and it seems sex-toy store Taboo in the former Taco Bell on Devine Street has been promising the same for almost as long. In fact, the closing signs have gone up two or three times before this latest, seemingly final, iteration.

I have a certain amount of sympathy given that the store originally complied with the city's intentionally difficult siting rules to open only to have them changed to specifically target Taboo -- something the store fought all the way to the Supreme Court.

Here is my 2014 false-alarm Closing for the store, followed here by another 2018 false-alarm. Here is a WIS story from 2016 touting the imminent closing, and this State story from December 2019 apparently finally calls it correctly.