Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Here's another upfit: The Raceway at the intersection of I-26 & Airport Boulevard. I think I actually stopped here once for gas. I have to say the motel looks like it needs an upfit more than the store does.

When I was taking pictures of Save a Lot on Saint Andrews Road, I noticed this vacant corner suite. I had no memory of it, despite having taken pictures there a number of times, but a little digging established that this was a Jewelry Warehouse location. Specifically, it was The State recommending the spot for

a commemorative poster featuring our next-day newspaper and sports section front pages

(of the USC baseball team's national championship) that included the elusive suite number.

If that was the last tenant, this spot has been vacant going on 7 years now.

A little hard to get a good picture of this place due to the tree, but this is the Sandhill location of Gymboree.

Assuming they stick to their announced plan, both this place and the Richland Mall location should start their final closing sales tomorrow (18 July 2017).

Well, there has been speculation for a while, what with Gymboree's Chapter 11 filing, but the other shoe dropped today:

SAN FRANCISCO – Children's clothing seller Gymboree Corp. is closing 350 stores as its works to restructure in bankruptcy.

The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that it's mostly closing Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores. It also operates Janie and Jack stores. The company will have more than 900 locations after the stores are shut down.

The full closing list is here, and includes, unsurprisingly, this Richland Mall store, as well as the one at Sandhill. The closing sales are supposed to start on 18 July.

I took these pictures back in early June and even then, the whole store was 50% off -- I don't think this is a big surprise to them.

I have to admit I had never heard of Janie and Jack or Crazy 8.

This 9 May 2017 State story is a bit inspecific, but we can conclude two things from it:

1) Tuesday Morning is opening a store in the old Hancock Fabrics location on Harbison, and

2) As of May 2017, this store on Saint Andrews Road was still open.

What they *don't* say is that *this* store was moving to Harbison, but given that the Harbision store is apparently now open, and has the same phone number that this one did, I think we can safely conclude that.

Also somewhat interesting, is that the story still refers to this plaza as The Clusters of Whitehall.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

As I remarked to my sister, they have been closing this store for years. You could say it started when they did away with the roasted nuts counter, part of the classic heritage that had followed them from Harden Street, but that half-joking aside, it was really apparent in recent years that the store was being hollowed out: there was less and less stock, and more and more empty space. It never got as bad as Belk at Dutch Square with a whole floor abandoned, but it was impossible not to notice. Then, several years ago, they decided it wasn't worth keeping the store open for all the hours that the mall was, and you'd find the mall doors drawn during normal business hours. This year, Sears as a whole finally put Going Concern language in their financial report, and when the latest list of store closings came out, I can't imagine anyone was surprised to see this store on it.

The closing of Sears will leave Columbia Mall with only one anchor store, and Macy's isn't looking that robust either lately.

As the store on Saint Andrews Road did earlier, the new-ish Aldi in Lexington has closed for a complete remodel. The signs say that they are slated to be back on 29 June 2017. That may be pusing it: That's less than 15 days away, and the store appears completely gutted now.

Looking back, the old Bike To Nature building was still here in August of 2013, and construction of this store still had not started in February of 2014, so they are doing a complete upfit after being open less than three years..

(Hat tip to commenter Beth)

Also in Friarsgate Plaza across from the currently closing Bi-Lo was this Dollar General.

They list in the February 2017 phonebook, and have a Yelp review from 15 April 2017, so I'm going to say they probably moved around May of 2017. The new, freestanding, location is 7812 Broad River Road which is a bit closer to I-26 exit 101 and on the other side of the road.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 20 June 2017: Changing the closing date from May 2017 to "2016" based on the comments. The phonebook is apparently wrong.

I'll admit that when this came up in Have Your Say, I couldn't even remember that there was a Save a Lot on Saint Andrews Road. In point of fact it hasn't been there that long, replacing the Kroger some time in 2015. That seems curious to me, as though they badly misread the market or something changed. The KJ's down the road might be direct competition, but that was planned before this store went in, and despite the Bi-Lo to Harvey's change at the top of the hill, I still don't see that location as direct competition to a discounter like Sav a Lot. Commenter Andrew references the new Wal Mart Neighboorhood Market, but that seems a good way from here..

At any rate, it appears the store will close on 22 June.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney).

Commenter Justin noted a while back this this River Drive conenience store has closed. I was not aware of the place, but it is actually fairly well placed as I cannot think of another one nearby. The next closest would be the one at the top of the hill on the other side of the river I believe.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)