Thrifty PayLess

Thrifty PayLess Holdings, Inc. was a pharmacy holding company that owned the Thrifty Drugs and PayLess Drug Store chains in the western United States.

The combined company was formed when Los Angeles-based TCH Corporation, the parent company of Thrifty Corporation and Thrifty Drug Stores, Inc., acquired the Kmart subsidiary PayLess Northwest, Inc.

At the time of the merger, TCH Corporation was renamed Thrifty PayLess Holdings, Inc. and Thrifty operated 495 stores, PayLess operated 543 stores.

In 1996, Rite Aid acquired and the 1,000-store west coast chain's owner Thrifty PayLess Holdings re-branded it as Rite Aid, creating a chain with over 3,500 drug stores.

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History of PayLess

Peyton Hawes and William Armitage acquired a controlling interest in five drug stores in three communities in Oregon and Washington, which were named PayLess, and grew their chain through both acquisition and internal expansion. By 1984 PayLess Drug Stores was the largest independently owned and operated drug store chain in the United States. It became a wholly owned unit of Kmart in 1985, as part of the Kmart expansion program created by CEO Joseph Antonini. In 1986, there were 225 PayLess stores. Between 1986 and 1988, it attempted a strategy of creating PayLess Wonder World stores in select Kmart, Value Giant, and former TG&Y locations in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico; these stores lacked pharmacies at first, but included other sundries at discount prices. The Wonder World chain peaked at 16 stores, and they were eventually reverted back to PayLess stores. By 1990 PayLess operated in nine western states. Today, Payless Drugs is still in business as a long-term healthcare pharmacy but no longer operates retail stores.

Acquisitions

• 1973 - Acquired Seattle based House of Values and Portland owned Gov-Mart Bazzar to form Pay Less/House of Values.
• 1976 - PayLess bought 22 Value Giant stores, the majority of which were located in Northern California.
• 1980 - PayLess acquired PayLess Drug Stores of Oakland, California, founded by Levi Justin Skaggs.
• 1987 - PayLess purchased 25 Osco Drug stores in Washington and Idaho.
• 1990 - Acquired Pay Less of Tacoma.

History of Thrifty

In 1919, brothers Harry and Robert Borun, with brother-in-law Norman Levin founded Borun Brothers a Los Angeles, California drug wholesaler. In 1929, they opened their own retail outlets under the name Thrifty Cut Rate in Los Angeles, California.

By 1942, Thrifty Drug Stores had 58 stores.

During the 1950's, a Thrifty commercial jingle was heard on numerous radio stations in Southern California:

"Save a nickel, save a dime.
Save at Thrifty every time.
Save a dollar and much more,
at your Thrifty Drug Store!"

By the late-1980s, Thrifty Drug stores acquired Pay 'n Save, Sportswest stores (converted to Big 5), and Price Savers Wholesale Club warehouses from the Pay 'n Save corporation.

Thrifty Corporation also owned Big 5 Sporting Goods Price Savers Membership Warehouses and Bi-Mart for a time.

In Washington State Thrifty went by the name of Giant T since the Thrifty name was in use by another chain of drug stores. The name was later changed to Thrifty in 1984. Later all Thrifty stores in Washington state were renamed to Pay 'n Save after the acquisition.

The Thrifty name and logo live on at Rite Aid, as Thrifty Ice Cream is still sold in the West Coast Rite Aid locations. The Thrifty brand of ice cream was retained because it had won several important awards in its history. Thrifty Ice Cream is also operated as ice cream shops around California.

In popular culture

• Thrifty and its ice cream are referenced in the song "Playdough!" by The Aquabats.
• Many people used to get the name confused with Payless Shoe Source. PayLess Drug Stores had the name registered first in each of the states it operated in, forcing Payless Shoe Source to operate under the name "Volume Shoes". Once PayLess Drug was purchased by Rite-Aid, Payless Shoe Source was able to convert its existing Volume stores into Payless stores.

PayLess of Tacoma

A separate chain of drug stores was operating in Tacoma using the Pay Less name. These stores operated in the counties of Pierce, Kitsap, and Thurston counties in Washington state. Pay Less Northwest would rename thier stores operating in those counties as House Of Values. Later the name was changed to Value Giant.

Arizona Thrifty PayLess

A separate and probably unrelated chain going by the name Thrifty-Payless was founded in Arizona by Allen Rosenberg in 1934. This self-service drug stores was sold in 1942 to L.L. Skaggs Payless drug store chain that later became Osco Drug in 1981. Rosenberg went on to be a philanthropist helping to establish Phoenix Children's Hospital.

References

• Pay Less to jump $1 billion sales hurdle in 1984 Discount Store News, July 23, 1984
• Pay Less changes mix, closes Wonder World units - Annual Industry Report, part 2 Discount Store News, July 18, 1988
• Completion of new children's hospital delayed The Business Journal of Phoenix - May 11, 2001 by Angela Gonzales