Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This convenience store and Exxon station at the edge of Shandon was formerly the full service Branham's Exxon. It had already done a remodel from that era to do away with the service bays, but the current tenant Gaz-Bah (also an Exxon) has temporarily closed to do another remodel.

As you can see from these pictures, the place has been completely gutted, and looks a good way from reopening.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin S).

The situation with Urban Cookhouse seems a bit odd to me and I suspect something went wrong. The Devine Street location (which was the only SC location at the time) closed around 30 June, and the place advertised a new "temporary" location in Five Points, which guessing from their Facebook Page was for catering only. There have been no posts to the page since 14 July, and no answers to questions people are asking there about the new location and opening date. Unless I missed an announcement somewhere, I think this place will not be coming back as a dine-in location.

Here is some (old) information from The State.

(Sorry that the pictures are poor, it was really too late in the day, and I meant to go back, but have not yet).

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

UPDATE 19 August 2021 -- Here are some better pictures:

Here is 741 Saluda, so I am still a bit confused about the status of things:

There was a question on Have Your Say recently as to whether the Chinese buffet in Crossroads Commons (down from the former Bi-Lo) was still open or not.

It's not. As far as I can tell from Yelp, it closed in early 2020. I'm guessing that COVID-19 played a role, but the reviews had been trending downwards for a while.

I don't seem to have a picture of it, but there is one here as part of the LoopNet listing.

Welp, here's another Bi-Lo closing to become a Food Lion. Google calls out the name of this strip mall as Crossroads Commons, which I don't believe I had ever heard. I meant to get inside over the weekend and didn't, but perhaps I will before the end.

(Hat tip to commenter DB)

Years ago, my niece was enrolled in tumbling at The Little Gym in its old location on Beltline and had a good time. As I recall, the move to the old Sounds Familiar location came after a fire at D's Wings and damage from the water used to put it out.

This time the culprit is 2020's scourge COVID-19. As ColaDaily reports:

Angie Brazell, owner of The Little Gym of Columbia, announced Thursday that the facility will be closing Oct. 24, due to lack of revenue prompted by COVID. Despite new families joining the gym, Brazell said it is just not enough under the new way they have to operate in order to keep guests safe.

UPDATE 9 October 2020: Fixed mistaken Devine Street in post title address with Rosewood Drive.

Bridal boutique London and Lace was the follow-on operation in this building to Kicks Shoes, and opened in the fall of 2014.

The announced on their Facebook in February 2020 that they were relocating to Ashville North Carolina. Apparently they got into full operation just as the Covid mess struck, but they seem to be coping with it now and are once again open.

Long's Drugs folded their retail operation on 24 March 2020. In retrospect, it was probably good timing as their stores were not larg mini-department stores like Walgreens & CVS, and purely medical business has been hurt by the current crisis with many doctor's appointments being cancelled. The company itself remains in business, serving institutional clients. WLTX has the story here.

This particular location is at the corner of Kilbourne Road & Devine Street, adjacent to the Piggly Wiggly. It has good traffic light access, but is too small to become a convenience store, so I'm not sure what is next for the property. Looking inside, it appears that Long's has not completely finished vacating yet, and I didn't notice any real estate sign on the property.

I shoped at this store once, when I was living out of town and needed a prescription filled after visiting a local doc-in-a-box for something or other. I recall being struck by how odd it was to be in a drug store that was almost wholly dedicated to being a drug store. An era is passing.

(Hat tip to commenter Beth)

And so it begins..

When my parents were still living, we ate at Yesterday's fairly often. In recent years, I have only gone a few times, but never worried about it, as I figured it would always be there. Hopefully they will come back.

Read the rest of this entry »

I didn't go there too often, but I liked Earth Fare. It was kind of in between The Fresh Market (one of my main go-tos) and Whole Foods, but without being obnoxious like Whole Foods.

As The State reported, the chain announced on 3 February 2020 that they were going into liquidation and closing all stores:

In a news release Monday, the Asheville-based company pointed to “challenges in the retail industry” that have kept the company from expanding and improving and have hindered “its ability to refinance its debt.”

“As a result, Earth Fare is not in a financial position to continue to operate on a go-forward basis. As such, we have made the difficult, but necessary decision to commence inventory liquidation sales while we continue to engage in a process to find potential suitors for our stores,” the company said in its release.

As of yesterday (16 February 2020), the store was still open, but I did not go inside to see how picked-over it was.

UPDATE 14 August 2020 -- The new owners are apparently about ready to reopen. The shelves are stocked with non-perishables, and they are hiring:

UPDATE 20 August 2020 -- Open again:

I noticed this empty storefront in the Cantina 76 building driving by on Christmas Eve. A bit of googling established that by that date, the spa had been gone for over a year. They have moved towards Five Points to 2901 Divine, right next to Publick House.

I believe the next most recent tenant in this spot was Hardcore Tennis and before that it may have been Ben & Jerry's. (A chain which surprisingly still has yet to come back to Columbia).