Dobbin Center — Local services in Columbia

This shopping area was one of the first of the large outside shopping areas to be built in Columbia, paving the way for the Gateway Overlook as well as the Target-centered shopping area across 175. The anchor store was a Kmart many years ago, which closed and sat vacant for some time until Walmart managed to finally gain a toehold in Columbia. The various other stores have turned over through the years, but Columbia manages to fill the vacancies with retailers that sometimes have no other local presence. The current roster is the aforementioned Walmart, a comprehensive Haverty's furniture store, Bray & Scarff appliances, Advance Auto Parts, Performance Bicycle, a Ross department store, Lane Bryant, and a few smaller shops. Currently only one larger building space is vacant. Dobbin Center proper and the adjoining extensions have filled in a lot of space with varied eateries like Five Guys, Nalley Fresh, Panera Bread, and several other desirable outfits. One thing Columbia is not lacking in are places to eat. Brick and mortar shopping seems to be alive and doing rather well here, unlike in many areas around the state and country that haven't made as much of an effort is bringing in new establishments.

The downside of Dobbin Center is probably the traffic entering and leaving the main area. Incoming traffic gets held up at the oversized pedestrian crossing at the Walmart, especially when people park or stand their cars near the entrance and don't pull far enough to the right. During peak times this can prevent traffic from Dobbin Road from fully leaving the intersection, causing a bit of gridlock. Best to enter and exit via the back entrance...

Traffic is horrible. Can only blame the drivers so much on this one though as the food/shopping whatever circle was set up horribly to begin with, especially the designing of the traffic lanes. It's a cluster Freak of nightmares from beginning to end. No joke, it's the worst traffic lane design or even just food center design I have seen in my forty years of living and given that I have moved every 2-3 years of the majority of that and have lived over seas, that's saying a lot (I've seen a lot of different cities, states, and therefore food/shopping and or traffic centers) and for around 9pm on a monday night when it's typically dead and traffic should flow easily it was still a bit problematic. They could have added one more entrance, simply changed the way the lane ran for a certain establishment's drive thru, pushed a couple businesses back off the highway a little more, or made the businesses form more of a circle type shape than a bunch of randomly placed buildings blocking other businesses' entryways- any one of these changes would have made a huge positive impact on the clutter of a traffic pile up there is around the clock at the intersection of Dobbin rd and the hwy. It takes one to have a serious need or craving to go through down Dobbin...

It was very congested because of the popularity of the stores in the center. When you first turn in there is a gas station to the right and a Wendy's, Chick-fil-a, McDonald's, Starbucks, nail salon and bank to the right. The Chick-fil-a was just newly renovated and it is bringing even more traffic to that small subsection. Continuing straight is the Walmart, Panera, Five Guys, Nalley Fresh, Pie Five, an auto parts store, Haverty's furniture store, Capital One, Lane Bryant, Destination XL, and a Tropical Smoothie. There is more parking on this park of the center but it still gets very congested. It's connected to another center just behind it that has...