page_title: Pay 'n Save
section_title: Sale of subsidiaries
hierarchical_section_title: Pay 'n Save / History / Sale of subsidiaries
context_page_description: Pay 'n Save was a retail company founded by Monte Lafayette Bean in Seattle, Washington in 1940. Over the years, Pay 'n Save was the leading drugstore chain in Washington and was the owner of several Washington-based retailers including Lamonts and Ernst. A 1984 sale of the company to The Trump Group and a 1986 attempt to transform the retailer into a bargain-basement merchandiser resulted in a loss of nearly $50 million. By 1988, Pay 'n Save was sold to Thrifty Corporation who later sold the stores to PayLess Drug who retired the Pay 'n Save name. As a result, most of the retailer's divisions were spun off as separate companies or shuttered. As of 2020, Pay 'n Save's membership discount chain, Bi-Mart, is the lone surviving division of the company.
  At the company's peak, Pay 'n Save was operating 313 stores in ten western states under several different names including Pay 'n Save, Ernst, Bi-Mart, Lamonts, Sportswest, Schuck's Auto Supply, Yard Birds, Von Tobel's, and Price Savers.
context_section_description: The company's sporting goods chain, Sportswest, was spun off in 1984 before being closed completely. After a brief period, Thrifty Corporation reopened the stores under the Big 5 Sporting Goods name. Sportswest was the first of several Pay 'n Save division to be sold over the next few years.
  In May 1985, Pay 'n Save announced it would put all its subsidiaries up for sale. During this time, Dayton-Hudson division Mervyns was expected to acquire the company's 20 Lamonts stores and Southland Corporation, then-owner of 7-Eleven, expressed interest in acquiring all 58 Schuck's Auto Supply stores. The first subsidiary to be sold was Price Savers Warehouse, in August 1985, to Cincinnati, Ohio-based Kroger.
  On November 1, 1985, Pay 'n Save successfully spun off Bi-Mart, Lamonts, and Schuck's to form a new company, Northern Pacific Corporation. With all divisions combined, the new company had sales of about $450 million, making it one of the Northwest's largest retail operations. Just eight days later, Pay 'n Save's flagship drugstore chain became controlled by a company equally owned by the Trump Group and a partnership headed by William Zimmerman, owner of California discount chain Pic 'N' Save. The sale left Pay 'n Save with 69 Ernst Home Center stores, three Yard Birds stores, and wholesaler Northwestern Drug Co. By January 1986, Pay 'n Save Corp. was renamed Seattle Standard Corp.
caption: A closed Ernst store in Boise, Idaho
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