Best Buy store on Two Notch at Columbia Mall to close

The Best Buy store on Two Notch Road near Columbia Mall is closing.

A spokesman for the company confirmed to The State that the last day of business will be Oct. 28.

“It’s never an easy decision not to renew a lease,” spokesman Jeff Shelman said from the company’s corporate offices in Minneapolis, Minn. “It doesn’t reflect on the staff or their hard work, but we’ve seen our customers change their shopping habits and they clearly prefer the Spring Valley and the Columbiana store.”

The company still has three stores in the Columbia area – in Lexington, in Northeast Richland on Two Notch Road near Spring Valley High School, and at Harbison near Columbiana Centre.

The closing is another blow for the Columbia Mall area. Sears closed its store in the mall this year.

The Best Buy store there has 30 full-time employees and some part-time workers. Snelman said those employee would be offered jobs at the other Columbia stores if available.

“We spend a lot of time and money training our employees and we would like to keep them,” he said.

Any product left in the store would be transferred to other locations, Snelman said.

This story was originally published October 6, 2017 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Best Buy store on Two Notch at Columbia Mall to close."