Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Wristwatch Doc used to be in Forest Acres where Marco's Pizza is now, but moved to Knox Abbott in April of 2014.

When the old Oscar de la Renta watch my father gave me in the 1980s started losing time, I took it here and they fixed it pretty quickly. (Well, I think they just replaced the guts, but that's fine with me, I'm a George Washington's Hatchet kind of guy.)

Unfortunately, I dropped it again a few months ago, and it's losing time again. Not sure where I'll take it this time.

Several folks in Have Your Say talking about watch batteries. If I'm in town, I take mine to Roof's on Forest Drive, and have never had a problem.

The wierdest time I ever had replacing a battery was when my watch stopped while I was spending a week working in DC. There's a big mall on the, um, blue, I think, line, Pentagon City or Crystal City, something like that. I metro-ed down to that and found a jeweler who told me: No problem! We'll send it off and have it back to you in two weeks. I asked if anyone had, in fact, ever taken them up on that, and apparently the answer was no.

Looking further there, I found something like the Watch & Sunglasses Hut, which did not inspire confidence, but I was there and didn't have any better options. The guy took the back off easily, and replaced the battery fine. Then he was having a dickens of a time getting the back on again, and I started to worry that he was going to bend it, or break the crystal with all the pounding he was doing. Finally he turns around to his counter and says, I guess I'm going to have to use this thingamajig that puts the puts the backs back on. He puts the watch in it, works a screw and presto: the back is on. I'm like, well, I dunno, but if I had a device for putting the backs of watches on, that might have been my first option..

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

Here's another Wells Fargo branch closed, this one by the Lexington Medical Center on Sunset Boulevard.

My sister is a WF customer, so she got word early and I took these pictures before it actually closed. Commenter JB later confirmed that it had taken place. Eventually I will get some pictures of the empty building if I can remember.

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Well, I would rather not take pictures through the passenger side window just to keep the camera semi-dry, but those are the conditions that prevail lately..

This Bi-Lo is on Emanuel Church Road in West Columbia in a spot where I am fairly sure I have never been before. In fact, I drove out there last week, headed down that branch of Emanuel Chruch Road, decided that things were petering out and turned around and went the other way.

This store is part of the latest round of Bi-Lo & Harveys closings, and presumably will be gone by the end of the month as these closeouts don't usually take too long.

UPDATE 10 May 2021 -- Now open as a Food Lion:

I noticed this vacant house/office on Sunset a few months ago. It seems that Chandler Chiropractic moved from this location sometime after April of this year to their new office at 3681-D Leaphart Road.

This building was obviously a ranch style residence when it was built, and was on a nice little plot of land. Of course that was probably when US-378 was a sleepy two lane road, and I don't see a family moving back here any time soon. The building is for sale, so we will see what happens next.

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Well, here's a bit of synchronicity. Friday 24 August 2018 was the first time I had ever happened to be in West Columbia, near JackSon's Southern Kitchen at (my) lunch time, so I decided I would finally check the place out.

Pulling in, it seemed to be dark, and there was a sign taped to the door, so I was going to get out and look at it, but then I noticed that the lunch hours during the week were only until 2:30, and it was 3:00, so I figured I had just missed it and drove on. I got home that evening, and people were already posting in Have Your Say that the place had closed down due to legal woes.

Here's the story from WIS (For some reason, they seem to have trimmed most of the text that was originally there).

You may recall that JackSon's started in Richland Mall and moved to Sunset Boulevard in 2016

UPDATE 4 May 2021 -- As reported by commenter Barbara reports, this storefront is undergoing a major upfit. Unfortunately, the construction sign is singularly unhelpful in telling what is to come:

Also adding a map icon.

Judging from their Facebook page, Holly's Famous Hot Dogs sadly had a death in the family last summer, and have not reopened.

(Hat tip to commenter Kc)

UPDATE 15 February 2022 -- Now (Tameleria) Taqueria La Poblanita:

Also adding map icon.

This title loan operation was the follow-on to Bojangles at this address. Judging by the comments on that post, Carolina Title Loans opened here in January 2014, giving them a 3+ year run.

I don't have a phonebook with me to verify this, but I believe the Knox Abbott address tagged as the new location was in fact already a Carolina location, making this more a consolidation than a move.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Commenter James R mentions that this former Golden Wireless location is vacant again after having been another cellphone operation in the interim. Judging from this this Carolina Panorama article, I think that operation must have been Phone Tech 4 Hire.

Looking at the article, they handled a wider range of electronics & electrics other than just phones. Intriguingly, barber shop clippers are mentioned. I never even considered that those might be fixed rather than replaced.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)