Ernst Home Centers

Ernst Home Centers, Inc.

Former type	Home improvement retail
Fate	Liquidation
Founded	1893 (1893) in Seattle, Washington
Founders	Fred and Charles Ernst
Defunct	1996 (1996)
Headquarters	Seattle, Washington
Number of locations	53 (1996)
Areas served	Western United States
Products	Lumber, tools, hardware, garden supplies, plants
Number of employees	2,000 (1996)
Parent	Pay 'n Save
Subsidiaries	Malmo Nursery

Ernst Home Centers, Inc. was a chain of home improvement retail stores founded in Seattle, Washington, United States. Ernst was started in 1893 by Seattle brothers Charles and Fred Ernst and in 1960 became a division of Pay 'n Save, one of the largest retail companies in the Northwest. After a 1984 takeover of Pay 'n Save, Ernst was sold off and went public in 1994. Following several highly publicized lawsuits and a failed attempt to open larger stores, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996 and liquidated in early 1997. At the company's peak, it operated 95 stores in 12 western U.S. states.

In 1893, brothers Charles and Fred Ernst started Ernst Hardware in Seattle, Washington. In 1907, the new company was incorporated as Ernst Hardware and Plumbing Co. and moved to 512 Pike Street in downtown Seattle.

During the 1950s, M. Lamont Bean, president of Seattle-based drugstore chain Pay 'n Save, expressed the possibility of operating non-drugstore businesses. Bean later took interest in Ernst and, in February 1960, came to an agreement with Fred Ernst to buy his nine hardware stores. Two years later, Pay 'n Save acquired Malmo Nursery and began opening Ernst-Malmo combination stores; combining hardware, lumber, garden supplies, and nursery items in one building.

In September 1984, the Trump Group, led by New York investors Julius and Edmond Trump (who are not related to Donald Trump) attempted to acquire Pay 'n Save for $355 million. Pay 'n Save's largest shareholders, Stuart Sloan and Samuel N. Stroum, vowed to fight the sale of the retail company. On September 12, 1984, The Trump Group announced that it had withdrawn its offer to purchase Ernst's parent company in order to negotiate with Sloan and Stroum. On October 15, 1984, Pay 'n Save was officially sold to the Trumps for $358 million. The future of Ernst was put at risk in May 1985 when Pay 'n Save announced plans to sell off all of its subsidiaries. On November 8, 1985, Pay 'n Save's 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 stores, three Yard Birds stores and wholesaler Northwestern Drug Co. In January 1986, Pay 'n Save was renamed Seattle Standard Corp. In March 1986, Hal Smith, former president of Irvine, California-based Builders Emporium, succeeded Mike Rouleau as president and CEO of Ernst.