Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Hi-Lites Ladies'Clothing ("Name Brands At Outlet Prices") seems to mainly follow a small town strategy. Apart from this Cayce store, the chain's locator page lists the other Carolinas' locations as

Albemarle, Atlantic Beach, Clinton (NC), Laurinburg, Lincolnton, Monroe, Mount Olive, Newton, Sanford, Shelby, Whiteville, Bennettsville, Dillon and Lancaster

It's interesting that by putting their "Columbia" store in Cayce, they got a somewhat similar area, but inside a fairly major Metro. Of course, apparently it didn't work out for them.

Parkland Plaza had been on a bit of an upswing lately, with the Ace Hardware re-opening, and the Dollar Discount being replaced, but this closing and that of Dollar General (which I will probably get to soon) along with the continuing vacancy at the old Parkland Pharmacy/CVS site put the place back almost to square one.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

UPDATE 4 April 2012 -- I went back when I could stop and got some better pictures:

I am reasonably certain that this old building on Frink Street in Cayce was a non-retail business at some time (though it may have started life as a small residence), but can find out nothing about it. Usually a google of a street address will bring up some sort of tax assessment or tax info, old references to departed businesses or some sort of "For Sale" listing, but none of that seems to be the case here.

UPDATE 22 February 2012: Changed post title from "Building" to "Barber Shop" based on the comments. Also changed closing date from 1970s to "Early 2000s"

UPDATE 29 March 2012: Added "Creamer's" to the barber shop name based on a comment from Mr. Creamer's grandson.

UPDATE 25 November 2012 -- Looks like work is going on here, or at least the next door neighboor's fence is now in front of the property.

When I lived in Fayetteville, there was a time when I ate lunch at Ryan's almost every day. I thought they had a very good salad bar with a number of unusual items, like peanuts (which are actually better on a salad than sunflower seeds in my opinion). They also had a cheese wheel of real cheddar, which when slipped into the excellent hot yeast rolls made a nice impromptu grilled cheese sandwich. The only minus factor was that the lettuce was shredded, sub style, rather than chopped into larger pieces as is usual.

At some point our lunch preferences shifted for one reason or another, and it was years until I tried Ryan's again. This time it was the one in Georgetown, on the section of 707 near the Wal-Mart, and I was not impressed. I don't remember if this was the case in Fayetteville, but by this point I definitely preferred booth seating, and there was none. The chairs were rather uncomfortable as well. The cheese wheel was gone, the peanuts were gone, and the yeast rolls didn't seem as good. I figured some of it might be that particular store, so several years after that, when I was on Two Notch near my lunch time, I dropped in at the store there, and found it to be about the same.

In later reading, I learned that while the chain was originally started by an Upstate company, it was eventually sold to a national chain running several different buffet operations, and I suspect this is when the place's character changed.

That firm, Buffets Restaurants Holdings Inc. filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy (for the second time..) on 18 January 2012. As part of that, they closed or planned to close 81 or their 494 stores (which include Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet, Fire Mountain, and Tahoe Joe's Famous Steakhouse in addition to Ryan's).

The Georgetown store is one of the ones that shut as well, but it appears that the Two Notch location will stay open as the firm works on recovery.

Props to the manager for writing a personal note.

What's next for this site? Experience would suggest an Asian buffet or a Mexican restaurant (and more power to them if that happens..)

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Bill)

UPDATE 22 April 2020 -- Commenter Mr. Bill sent in some pictures of the demolition of this building, which I manged to lose for a while. Here they are:

I wrote about this place a good while ago in a closing for The Gamecock Theater, and actually in that closing, from 2008, I noted that it also was closed. It may not exactly be that simple though.

Anyway, Resale Revue, in its first incarnation, was an antique-mall type of place. I only went in once, and it seemed it skewed more towards flea-market type antiques (old records, toasters etc) than antique furniture -- which was fine by me. I think I may have gotten a dial telephone there, but I have a number of them (two still hooked up..) and can't really recall.

That incarnation was gone by 2008, but I noticed this year that the place was hosting events for the Indie Grits Festival using the old theater space as a venue. Given that the a Colliers Keenan sign was in place in 2008 and is still in place, I'm guessing that the owners rent the space out for events from time to time as they are able, and the name carries over as nobody is going to change the sign for that.

Update 2 September 2020: Take "Parkland Plaza" out of the post title and add it as a tag. Add map icon, update tags in general.

I don't know what this little building on Knox Abbott just below Silver City was originally, but with that open front and closed back, it looks a bit like a dry-cleaner to me. (Though I don't see a drive-through).

The Secretary Of State's office says that from 1997 to 2004, it was Cayce Outdoor Power Equipment. I believe it was Signs 2 Go from then until now.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

UPDATE 6 October 2011: Commenter Jonathan says Signs 2 Go have moved to Meeting Street, so I have updated the post title with "(moved)".

UPDATE 26 April 2014 -- It's now Wristwatch Doc:

Well, here is yet another cell-phone store closing, featuring both reversed and reversed-upside-down name placards. (This is not uncommon, apparently you want to keep the sign-boxes closed to the elements, without having to buy blank signs). I'm not sure exactly when this place closed, but it is in this year's phonebook (Feb-2011/Feb-2012), so I'm going to just say "2011". This little strip mall is on Knox Abbott a little west of Parkland Plaza, and just about across the street from Silver City.

While I was out and about today, I noticed some guys apparently hanging a new banner that said Zeus Pizza on the marquee of Tony's Pizza at Parkland Plaza. When I got back by after making a few other stops, it appeared that perhaps I was wrong and they were taking it down, or they needed some more tools to make it stick. Either way, it's clear from looking at the signs in the store windows that the name change is official. I drove down the street to the Tony's near 12th Street, and there is no indication of any change there, so I guess just this location has changed ownership. (The Parkland Plaza roadside sign still lists Dollar Discount as well as Tony's).

The door sign namechecks Columbia's Greek Festival. I certainly took the opportunity to stop by this weekend and have some Baklava and Galaktoboureko!

(Hat tip to commenter Tonkatoy, sort of)

UPDATE 30 September 2011 -- Commenter Andrew sends these two pictures of the new Zeus banner I saw now being successfully installed:

The first two pictures above come from a post noting changes in the surrounding plaza that I made last November.

At the time the whole plaza was for sale apparently as a bank forclosure. Since then, the place has been bought by East Point Academy charter school: "The first South Carolina Chinese Immersion Elementary School". (I'm not sure how that kid on their home page really feels about that Panda -- I'm reminded of a South Park episode..). Anyway, as a result, Sandy's and whoever else was still in the plaza had to get out.

Sandy's Facebook page calls this location Cherry Park, which I had never heard before, and notes that "we will open a new location soon", which I take to mean in the same general area.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

UPDATE 5 April 2012 -- The Chinese immersion charter school which took over the whole plaza is now up and running:

UPDATE 22 January 2020: Update tags, add map icon.

I don't really know anything about Cayce School. I'm guessing that given the name, it was the school in Cayce at one time. The (Guignard?) brick architecture could easily go back to the 1940s I suppose. The pictures don't really make it clear, but as this aerial view from google maps shows, the school is really just one building with several different wings:

View Larger Map

Of course it's a building that takes up a block of its own, being bounded by 3rd Avenue, Lexington Avenue (on which it fronts), Poplar Street and 8th Street.

At some point it appears that it stopped being a "school" as such and was taken over by Lexington District Two as a "Learning Center". (I have to say that the picture with the sign indicating such would make a good funny email to forward around Mississippi education circles..).

The building has obviously been out of use for a good while, and I think only the fact that it is in the middle of a residential area has kept it from being vandalized and tagged to a fare-thee-well. Certainly it is decrepit, which can be seen in the google view (which can be zoomed) as well as my pictures. Signs around the school indicate that the lot is to become luxury townhomes in a gated community, so I suppose the building will be demolished at some point, though with the current real-estate market, I doubt the developers will be in a big hurry.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

Read the rest of this entry »

Here's a nice square little brick building at the corner of Frink and James Streets in Cayce. You can read the sign on the door if you click through to the high-res version, but the gist is that this beauty shop moved to 1816 Frink Street. Now, I find Salon 2000 listed at 1816 Frink in the February 2007 phonebook (one of those I have without going to the library), but not afterwards, so a) I guess this place could have moved any time before that, and b) apparently it did not last too long there. (There is also a Salon 2000 currently listed in Forest Acres, but since they were both listed in the Feb 2007 book, I don't think they are the same).

Notice the nice graphic of the lady's head in the last picture. The one you are probably looking at is actually a shadow cast by the one painted onto the window. It's a nice effect:

Update 25 November 2012 -- As mentioned in the comments, the windows are now boarded up: