Flickr User: JoeInSouthernCA 

For the past several months rumors have been swirling around Charleston that  the Swedish budget-friendly clothing chain, H&M would be setting up shop down there. 

While speculation and debate continues with our southern neighbors, a new rumor has sprung up that H&M will in fact be opening up here instead. 

A commenter on TheDigitel Charleston's piece on Williams-Sonoma moving their location on King Street had some interesting things to say on the subject:

H&M announces all their planned openings for the next fiscal year at the beginning of each year. There is not an H&M coming to Charleston in 2012

She goes on to say

But there is a H&M opening in Myrtle Beach this year. When I left the company the expected opening date was two weeks before Thanksgiving.

Could it be true? Will we be home to South Carolina's first H&M store, beating out bigger metro areas like Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville? There is plenty of empty space at Coastal Grand Mall since The Gap closed all three of their stores this past winter or maybe they'll be setting up at the new shopping center at Waccamaw Pottery? 

We've emailed the commenter to try and gather further proof, until H&M releases an official statement consider this a big-ol-rumor.