BI-LO / Badcock Home Furniture & More, 940 Chesterfield Highway: October 2024 (2025/06/30)

Badcock Home Furtniture & More went out of business in 2024. In December of 2023, it had been acquired by a Texas-based chain, Conn's, "in a move the company projected would increase its annual revenue by $1.85 billion." Clearly, that didn't quite pan out so well. In October 2024, the Badcock Home Furniture & More store in Cheraw closed after a month-or-so-long storewide clearance sale.

The Cheraw Badcock store first opened in the early-to-mid 1990s at the old Big Lots location downtown, which is currently a Fitness Worldwide Gym. Around ten years later, Badcock moved to 940 Chesterfield Highway, which was the original location of the BI-LO grocery store.

I believe that when this shopping center at the corner of Windsor Drive and Chesterfield Highway (or Highway 9) was built (1960s???), BI-LO was one of the first stores. In this shopping center at the beginning of the 1990s, when facing the front of the shopping center, starting from the left, there was Family Dollar, BI-LO, Revco (later CVS), and Jones Furniture. I'm a bit fuzzy on what stores existed in between Jones Furniture and the Shoe Show, before it moved to Chesterfield Commons. I do remember there also being a Cheraw Pawn Gun & Jewelry and the Mini Doughnuts stand. By the end of the '90s, the BI-LO and CVS would eventually move to 8 Chesterfield Highway by the fire department.

Texaco Gas Station / Suggs Ice Cream / Wingate Auto Sales / Lee Real Estate, 96 Powe Street: 2022 (moved) (2025/06/23)

Back in 2019, I observed that Lee Real Estate had moved from 201 Front Street to 96 Powe Street because the building at 201 Front Street was demolished to make way for the construction of the SpringHill Suites hotel. Then, when I was taking pictures for the closing of Pee Dee Nutrition in 2022, I noticed that Lee Real Estate had moved into the storefront at 847 Chesterfield Highway, which is in the Chesterfield Commons shopping center. With the fairly recent addition of the SPC Credit Union branch, it seems that Chesterfield Commons has taken two steps out of the grave.

Before this building was used as a real estate office, it was used by Wingate Auto Sales. Although I have found other locations for this business, including 23 Martin Luther King Drive and 3827 Highway 74 E in Wadesboro, it appears that Wingate Auto Sales is out of business.

Although I am sure that there were other, more recent businesses at 96 Powe Street, I only recall it being Suggs Ice Cream in the 90s and a Texaco gas station before then. It is likely that this building served as a gas station, and possibly a full-service station, for most of its history, given the look of the building.

Sadly, the stretch of Powe Street between Front Street and the bridge has seen better days and is currently devoid of any businesses, unless you count the busted-up trailer that is "for rent" in the lot next to the former Five Two Kitchen. It's a far cry from the days when upon crossing the bridge into Cheraw, the first sites you would see were a Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Inn, the J & K, Thomas Antiques, Kream Kastle, and a couple of gas stations.

Zion Grocery / Riverway Grill, 1208 Zion Road, Bennettsville: before 2018 (2025/05/10)

While driving down the back roads of Marlboro County, I came across this old, white building. This building was last a restaurant called Riverway Grill. As for what food Riverway Grill served, since I can't find any information about it online, I couldn't tell you. Burgers and hot dogs? Ribs, maybe?

When looking up the address of the building, 1208 Zion Road, I was surprised to find that it is a Bennettsville address rather than Blenheim, as I was thinking this location was closer to the latter. I also learned that it was previously a grocery store called Zion Grocery.

According to this online record from the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services, two gasoline tanks and one kerosene tank were removed from this site so at one point, it appears that fuel was sold at this location. If I were to guess the age of this building just by its looks, I would say it is roughly 100 years old and has served as a convenience store for most of its existance.