A farewell to Belk: Richland Mall’s longtime department store is closed
The mannequins look like they have a secret, the way they huddle together, heads bowed. Once fashionistas, their plastic-porcelain frames have now been stripped bare. But they seem to take it in stride, their proud bodies waiting in repose to be carried out of the rapidly emptying department store around them.
Across the sales floor, a woman rifles through unkempt boxes of high-heeled shoes — 65% off if she can find a pair that fits right. A big read sign overhead declares this is a “clearance blowout!”
Beyond her, tables, clothing displays and the other odds and ends that make a department store run have been stacked up and cordoned off. Caution tape keeps the few remaining sale-shoppers corralled to one small section of the store.
All that remains to purchase are a few racks of clothing, some shoes, a table of miscellany. Everything is 65% off, unless it’s 75% off. Have the stains on the carpet been hiding all this time, or are they new consequences of a speedy exit?
The Belk department store in the Richland Mall has officially closed after nearly 30 years at the site, a prelude to the coming redevelopment of the long-standing site.
On Tuesday, after a roughly month-long super sale, shoppers made their final visits to the Forest Acres consumer institution.
For Lisa Marshá, it was her last chance to return a few shirts — the last chance she’d ever get. (Well, unless she went to one of Belk’s other Columbia-area locations.)
“This center has always been able to draw a good crowd,” she explained as a lifelong local. The area has always been middle class or higher, with good wages and healthy pocketbooks.
It’s bittersweet to lose the mall. After all, Marshá grew up here. In its heyday, the Richland Mall had two grocery stores, a hip record shop and Mr. Poppers, where she’d get popcorn and an Icee.
Marshá looks back on those days fondly but agrees the mall is nothing like what it once was. On Belk’s final day — and, in fact, for years leading up to it — the department store and a Barnes & Noble bookstore were the only retailers to speak of inside the once-popular shopping center. Other stores had long since cleared out, leaving hollow hallways with leaking ceilings, dim and empty parking garages, and a rooftop movie theater that closed in early 2022.
Belk’s departure now comes as an out-of-state development firm is preparing to begin a $100 million overhaul of the entire Richland Mall property, with a 100,000-square-foot grocery store, more than 500 apartments, a public park, a brewery or taproom and more.
“It’s going to be such a shot in the arm. People will come here if it’s modern and contemporary,” Marshá said.
RIchland Mall opened in 1961 as an open-air shopping center. As with most such malls, it was reformed in the 1980s as a covered attraction and in the coming decades would struggle to maintain national anchor stores. Shopping malls across the U.S. bore a similar fate.
Today, Barnes & Noble is the last holdout. The company plans to stay put through the term of its lease, which ends this year, a spokesperson previously said. The store plans to move to a new location on Garners Ferry Road.
“Belk has been proud to serve customers at our Richland Mall store since 1998,” Belk spokesperson Jessica Rohlik previously told The State.
“After store closing, we hope to welcome Richland Mall customers to our Columbiana Centre or the Village at Sandhill locations,” Rohlik added. “Customers are also able to shop for their favorite products on Belk.com or in the Belk app.”
