Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I believe this Harbison building first featured here as a Toys-R-Us, but now it's another Value City Furniture closing due to the chain's bankruptcy. As of last week, they were down to 50% off.

I don't recommend going anywhere this weekend, but there may be some deals left next week.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I probably have enough furniture to last me out, so I don't know much about Sugar Creek, but they seem to have been well reviewed, and you can see their archived web site here.

This storefront featured here before as a Jewelry Warehouse location.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I have been in this store, in the Two Notch Walmart plaza, several times buying computer equipment. As I recall, I got a complete desktop system here once, and the last time I was in got some cables for my KVM setup. In the event, I ended up buying the wrong ones, and they gave me a no-hassle return experience.

The chain was recently bought and taken private, and just got a new CEO. I get the impression they have had some troubles, but are not on the ropes, despite closing this store. We will see. In the meantime, there is still a location at Dutch Square.

Value City Furniture is a brand of American Signature. In trouble for a while, the chain filed for Chapter 11 in November of 2025, hoping to find a buyer to continue operating the stores. When none materialized, the company decided it had no choice but to liquidate and cease operations.

You can read about it here, and here as well as the Wikipedia link above.

The Sandhill location is interesting, in that it featured here as Sofa Express in a closing from the site's first couple of month's existence. Ironicaly, Sofa Express also went Chapter 11 and ceased to exist. That bankruptcy, along with the closing of the original Ashley Furniture Homestore incarnation were big blows to the fledgling Village At Sandhill along with the general crash of 2008, and the development never really recovered.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

Apparently SAS means San Antonio Shoemakers, and they are headquarted, logically, in San Antonio.

I was not really aware of their Forest Acres store until commenter Larry mentioned it, but it is in the little retail center abuting the former Richland Mall. I took these pictures in mid-December, so the logical time for the final closing would probably have been the end of the year, but I have not driven by again to see if in fact they are now closed.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

Pink Sorbet, , a Lilly Pulitzer Signature Store closed on 4 November, and you can read their farewell on Instagram or Facebook. I am not in the demographic, but the comments on Facebook show a well liked spot that will be missed.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

I noticed last weekend that the Shell convenience store in Five Points is closed. According to StreetView, it was open as recently as September of 2025, so I'm guessing it probably closed at the end of October. It hasn't been long anyway.

Never pay full price!

Orvis was founded in 1856, and impinged very infrequently on my attention over the last 170 years. I had the vague idea it was some sort of L. L. Bean thing, (apparently there was more fishing involved than I expected) and totally missed that fact that a store had opened in Cross Hill Market, taking the place of PlantHouse which closed in March 2024.

Here are State stories on the store announcement, and the store opening. There doesn't yet seem to be on on the closing. The chain announced the grand opening on their Facebook just shy of a year ago.

The closing doesn't really have anything to do with Columbia as a market. The chain is in big trouble and is closing about half their stores (for now).

The "November" closing date is just a guess, given that we are more than half-way through October and the closing sale has already started.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

Daniel's Fine Furniture has moved from their location across from the Airport to 1217 Sunset Boulevard in the same little strip which used to house JackSon's Southern Kitchen. They appear to have some sort of sale going on.

Here is the West Metro News on the move.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

I have the feeling that this place had a different name when I was growing up, and indeed you can see that the current marquee seems to be installed over a, different, previous one. During those years, it was not at all unusual for a "real" store to be in downtown Fernandina. There was a grocery store where the antique mall is now, Wass Drugs, the local department store, run by by a childhood friend of my father, a gas station, and several sundries shops. Now it is all pretty much restaurants and touristy shops -- not that I don't enjoy that, but a bit of the character of a "working city" is gone.

I don't have many specific memories of the hardware store, except that I'm pretty sure my father would walk over from my aunt's house now and then to pick up things for the various small repair projects he did for her on our visits, such as tacking the stair-covers down again. As it happens, I needed a dowel when I was in town in December of 2023, and walked over from the hotel and got one. The place was very old-school of the sort you don't see much anymore -- think the downton (not Five Points") incarnation of Hiller Hardware.

They have been trying to sell the building for a couple of years, and this summer seemed to have stepped up the efforts, and posted official closing signs. I'm unclear if they are still open at this time or not -- I don't see anything online, and google doesn't have them down as "closed", but if not, it's just a matter of time.