{"id":287,"date":"2009-01-07T22:21:25","date_gmt":"2009-01-08T03:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=287"},"modified":"2010-03-22T00:14:47","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T05:14:47","slug":"belks-dillards-columbia-mall-late-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=287","title":{"rendered":"Belk's \/ Dillard's, Columbia Mall: late 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Dillard's<\/i> started out as a Belk's<\/i> when Columbia Mall opened in the 1970s and was one of the original anchor stores (along with Sears<\/i>, Penny's<\/i> and RIch's<\/i>).<\/p>\n

Since I considered Belk's mainly a \"clothes store\" and I hated shopping for clothes, in the usual course of events, I would not have gone there often. However in one of those odd little bits of department-store whimsey (nut counters, lunch rooms, hair salons..) that were common in pre-mall days and had yet to be abandoned, they had an area on the second floor near the kitchen-ware which was leased out to a local record store. I knew the name of it before I started this post, but I find it has completely escaped me at the moment. At any rate, it was a small area and the selection of regular LPs was not deep by any means, but they frequently had incredible finds for anyone willing to root through the cut-out bins. Being broke and somewhat obsessive, that was me. I know I still have a number of LPs from there, with the standout being a two disc Jan & Dean<\/i> collection which had all the hits (which were otherwise pretty unavailable at the time) and<\/i> a number of the tracks cut by Dean after Jan's accident under the names Laughing Gravy<\/i> (a fun cover of The Beach Boys<\/i>' \"Vegetables\") and The Legendary Masked Surfers<\/i> (the infectious \"Sunshine Music\"). The liner notes promised that all the tracks were in \"quasi-moto monaural\" and if you experienced any problems to \"take a shower with a friend\".<\/p>\n

Aside from browsing the record cut-outs (and kitchen gadgets from time to time) my other favorite thing to do in the store was to ride the small capsule-like elevator. This managed to look both futuristic and a bit art-deco at the same time, and allowed you to look out over the whole store as you ascended or fell.<\/p>\n

I forget all the details, but at some point in the late 70s or 80s, Belk left the Columbia market for a while. I think it might have been a family inheritance struggle over management of the chain, but it's very fuzzy. At any rate, after the store space closed as a Belks, it reopened as a Dillards.<\/p>\n

I can't say very much about Dillards -- it had no music section so I think I only went in there a few times and found nothing that struck my fancy. I'm pretty sure I never purchased an item there. The chain has been hurting in recent years, and though I don't find any news suggesting the chain itself is in danger, they have been closing underperforming stores, one of which was apparently the Columbia Mall store.<\/p>\n

I recall a story in The State<\/i> mentioning the (then) upcoming closing and interviewing the mall owners who allowed that you (approx) \"seldom had the opportunity to replace two anchor stores\" (Steve & Barry<\/i> is also leaving). I was reminded of the old Pogo<\/i> quote:<\/p>\n

We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I took these pictures in October. I would have taken more, but one of the floorwalkers politely inquired as to what I was doing, and it always sounds pretty lame when I try to explain it. Jan & Dean in \"Submarine Races\" mode would have been much more persuasive!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

UPDATE 1 March 2010<\/b>: The place still has not been touched since the closing. I half expected them to wall over the entrances:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dillard's started out as a Belk's when Columbia Mall opened in the 1970s and was one of the original anchor stores (along with Sears, Penny's and RIch's). Since I considered Belk's mainly a \"clothes store\" and I hated shopping for clothes, in the usual course of events, I would not have gone there often. However […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[24,78,84,4],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-columbia-mall","tag-dentsville","tag-department-store","tag-stores"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}