Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I'm not sure exactly when this smoke shop closed. Street View for November of 2023 shows the sign still up, but the place did not appear to be open. I will go with "Early 2024". I am pretty sure the chain remains in business with a shop on Saluda, at least.

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).

Commenter Larry points out this State story on the closing of Palmetto Candy & Tobacco. This Columbia institution is on Lincoln Street across from the Seaboard station, and is someplace I have always meant to check out. In the event, as is often the case, I have apparently waited too long.

As the 21 April story (which places the closing time as "about a month ago") notes, there is a "remodeling" sign on the store door, but I find that more often than not in these cases, that is kind of a "the cat is on the roof and won't come down" way to break bad news. This is especially the case given the customer base was apparently largely "filling stations, corner markets, baseball leagues and swimming pools" -- the types of operations which will quickly change to new suppliers and then be reluctant to make yet another change if the place reopens.

(Hat tip to commener Larry)

UPDATE 19 March 2022 -- I just came across this 26 August 2008 shot of the place in operation:

Also updating tags and adding a map icon.