Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This closing was first mooted back in 2020, I think, with Lidl speculated to be the next tenant. In the event, the owners of this Piggly Wiggly had time remaining on their lease and elected not to go anywhere.

Now the lease has ended, and apparently the property owners did not want to renew. This store, often called The Social Pig because Shandon neighbors often ran into each other here closed on 28 March.

This location is not particularly close to me, so I did not stop in that often over the years, but the few times I did, it was fine, and I got what I needed.

It's unclear to me whether Lidl is in fact moving in, but for now probably the Food Lion at Devine & Fort Jackon Boulevard is probably the closest non-specialty grocery.

You can read about the closing here & here, and the store's farewell message is on their Facebook along with the note that store fixtures are to be sold off on 15 April.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry & co)

UPDATE 28 April 2025 -- Thanks to commenter Jack Roberts for these shots!

Barrio Tacos was in the former location of Sports Talk Barbershop and a number of other businesses in this little strip of Devine Street which were moved out for the new development.

Originally the plan was for the building to become a second location for Griffen Chophouse, but that fell apart at some point, and Barrio came in on the rebound, opening, apparently, sometime early in 2024.

I had only just become aware of the place and never got a chance to visit. The State has the story here.

Carolina Barber Shop in Five Points is moving after being in this spot since 1937, making it about 87 years by my math, which is pretty extraordinary.

The Post & Courier reports that the property was sold in 2021, and now the owners want to make space for a restaurant. I don't see a definite date for the closing, and there is still nothing on the shop's Facebook or web site, but apparently they must be gone by sometime in July (depending on when the 90 day notice the story mentions started).

The owners want to move, but I have seen no information on a new location yet.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

The Burger King on this site closed in 2011 and was razed to make way for this building. PDQ [People Dedicated to Quality] opened here in 2014, so they lasted about ten years. I'm not a chicken person, but I know my sister and nieces liked it well enough, but perhaps not enough other people did, because the chain has closed 8 restaurants in the Carolinas, which out of 61 total storefronts, is a major hit. I see they have also closed two locations in New Jersey, so they are definitely hurting all over.

Here is the Post & Courier on the Devine Street closing.

Commenter Dave reports rumors that a Whataburger will be coming to the site, but as far as I know, these have not been confirmed.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

The Bojangles at Cross Hill Market on the corner of Cross Hill Road, Fort Jackson Boulevard & Devine Street has been razed. The restaurant is to be built back with two drive-through lanes and patio seating. You can read about it on WLTX or at The Post & Courier.

There doesn't seem to be a firm date to expect the new building to be in service.

(Hat tip to commenter Midnight Rambler)

UPDATE 25 June 2024 -- In these pictures from 9 June, the new building is coming along:

1 October 2024 -- Open again:

I have been aware of Eggs Up Grill since they opened their first location in Litchfield Beach, in a side-room of Latte Litchfield. Somehow in all those years, I've never managed to stop by a location. This is mostly down to my not being a breakfast person at all, and the fact that they close relatively early in the day. I'll get to it eventually.

As I recall, this location was their first one in Columbia, and in fact, their first one off the Grand Strand. I still think of it as being fairly new, but it's actually been here a good few years now, and it is currently closed while they remodel. I didn't see any proposed opening date posted anywhere, but looking inside, they still have a good ways to go.

UPDATE 3 October 2023 -- Open again:

When Smashburger first opened here, I liked it quite a bit. The burger was really good, and there were lots of bun options, including a chipolte bun that was quite tasty. The booths were much more comfortable than 5 Guys steel chairs, and the ice-tea, which was also quite good, was attractively dispensed from clear plastic tubes which mimicked old-style hand-pump gas dispensers. The only fly in the ointment, and one that kept me from being a regular is that I didn't like the fries. They were well executed for what they were trying to do, but I didn't care for the idea they were executing.

So, I would go every now and then, but probably not more than three or so times a year. All that was before the pandemic. When I went back after the pandemic, everything had changed. All of the bun options were gone, and there were no ice-tea dispensers at all in the dining room. In fact when I asked about tea, the staffer looked at me like I was crazy, and apparently went off to brew one cup. There didn't seem to be much traffic there, and a couple of times when I came to eat at the adjacent Moe's, I thought the place had already closed.

In fact, that didn't happen until late december of 2022 as reported in The Post & Courier. The reason given there was that the rent was due to triple, but I think the business they were doing had to be a factor as well, or I would have expected Moe's to jump ship as well.

Commenter Larry reports that this spot is to become a Dave's Hot Chicken.

(Hat tip to commenter Trevin Montgomery)

UPDATE 27 June 2023 -- Now Dave's Hot Chicken:

I wrote about a move for this place back in 2010, but now Bohemian Home on Devine Street is closing after nearly 50 years. WLTX has the story (with an interesting historical twist in the second paragraph), which is basically that with rising rents, current business conditions and the onslaught of big box stores, the owners decided keeping on was untenable.

The current plan is to shut down at the end of August, with an auction possible if there is still remaining inventory.

(Hat tip to commenter Deanna)

Since I am not a seafood person, and definitely not a raw seafood person, I wasn't really aware of Sushi Yoshi in Five Points. Online reviews suggest it was a quirky little place with a small staff and idiosyncratic seating arrangements. As nearly as I can tell from those reviews, they probably closed late in 2021, as a January review mentions that a "temporarily closed" sign had been up for several months by that point.

(Hat tip to commenter Deana)

Substation II was the follow-on operation in this storefront to Jimmy John's, and opened in 2019. I know that going there would be an issue for me because of parking, but I'm not a student without a car. Then of course there was the pandemic, which can't have helped. For whatever reason though, this storefront is now again vacant.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry).

UPDATE 14 June 2024: Update title & tags.