Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

According to Wikipedia, which has what seems to be a reasonable summary, Charlotte Russe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 4 February 2019, in the event, no rescue was forthcoming, and the chain announced on 7 March 2019 that it would be closing all its stores.

There are two Charlotte Russe stores in the Midlands. This one at Columbia Mall and another at Columbiana Centre. The Columbia Mall store is centrally located on the upper level, in between the old Dillards and Macy's above the mall's center court.

I'm not sure what's going on with the lights dangling down in center court. I guess they could be leftover Christmas lights. At any rate, I'm sure they would be more attractive if they were lit rather than hanging there dark like that.

Well, this happened sooner than I figured, and this store was completely gone by the time I got around to visiting Columbia Mall.

Of course, it appears to have been a failry small store, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. As you can tell if you click through on the mall directory, Payless was on the lower level just two storefronts down from the former Sears. The storefront to the left of it is also vacant, though I'm not sure what it was.

As a reminder, Payless declared bankruptcy on 14 February 2019 and all the chain's stores have closed or will be closing soon.

I've featured this little walk-up restaurant on Two Notch at Covenant under, I believe, four different names in two different posts.

Apparently the last incarnation was The Picnic Table.

Judging from the new lettering on the marquee, it was apparently trying to become an ABC store, but ran, at least for now, into a zoning snag of some sort.

Happy New Year, Columbia!

This old-school appliance store, right next door to Spring Valley Liquor Store & Party Shop is now vacant.

You have got to admire that wringer equipped Maytag still (as of late December) holding down the fort, and waiting for cartoon hijinks:

(Hat tip to commenter thomas)

Given how many classic arcade games I played in college (Galaga, anyone?), it's a bit odd that I never got into PC or console games. Perhaps it's because I sit in front of a computer all day, perhaps it's just that reading is too much fun and takes too much time. However that all washes out, it means I never visited this Two Notch video game storefront, but I see that you have one more week to stop by and get 50% off.

I kind of like the folklore quality of identifying liquor stores with red dots. I think it was more a legal thing, at least at one time, than were the barber pole, the pawnbroker's trio of balls and the medical cross & caduceus, but it falls in that category nonetheless. Anyway, this store, not far from the antique mall, is listed in the 2018 phonebook, so it either closed this year, or after listings closed last year.

As commenter c noted, this Holiday Inn is currently between flags and operating simply as Columbia Northeast Hotel (owned by Mariot, but officially branded during construction).

I drove around the building and did not see any major work ongoing so perhaps the end is near (though there were some romm fixtures in the back lot).

To make matters interesting, the hotel across the street (in the last picture) has recently been reflagged as a Holiday Inn Express, so if you booked this one when it was a Holiday Inn, and you go looking for it in the area, you are going to be surprised..

(Hat tip to commenter AmericanColumbia)

Somehow after all these years, I've never made it into a Piggie Park. Probably because I convinced myself at an early age that I didn't like barbecue (I've revised my opinion a bit), and didn't really realize they had other Southern items.

The State says the property is to become a car dealership. I would guess used cars.

The Clemson Road and Dentsville locations remain open.

(Hat tip to commenter Harry etc)

I tend to end up at Roof about once a year, as it it my go-to place for watch batteries and watchbands. According to The State they will be moving to Four J's Plaza on Forest Drive sometime this month.

From my point of view, this is about a wash, location-wise as both addresses are fairly convenient for me. It is another hit for Dentsville though.

UPDATE 28 June 2018 -- The new location:

I noticed the other day that Dick Dyer Body Shop on Two Notch (which is also the former location of Dick Dyer Toyota) was for sale. Checking the web site reveals that it is already closed, and that they are referring customers to Caliber Collision on Newland Road.

I guess this is the final end of an era for Dick Dyer on Two Notch. I and my parents bought cars from the dealership, and I had my car in the body shop after taking out Bambi on I-26. I liked when the dealership was here, as I could take my car in and walk home. I can't do that from Blythewood, which has cut way down on my usage of their repair operation.