Pay 'n Save

Pay 'n Save Corporation

Former type	Private (1940-1964; 1984-1987) Public (1964-1984; 1987-1988) Subsidiary (1988-1992)
Industry	Retail
Fate	Acquired by PayLess Drug
Founded	Seattle, Washington, United States (1940 (1940))
Founder	Monte Lafayette Bean
Defunct	1992 (1992)
Headquarters	Seattle, Washington, United States
Number of locations	124 (1992)
Area served	Western United States
Key people	M. Lamont Bean (president (1959-1984))
Products	Pharmacy and General Merchandise
Number of employees	3,500 (1992)
Subsidiaries	Pay 'n Save, Ernst/Malmo Nursery, Bi-Mart, Lamonts, Sportswest, Schuck's Auto Supply, Yard Birds, Von Tobel's, Price Savers Warehouse

Pay 'n Save was a retail company founded by Monte Lafayette Bean in Seattle, Washington; 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 2011, 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.

In 1940, businessman Monte Lafayette Bean arrived in Seattle, Washington from Portland, Oregon to take over Tradewell Stores, Inc., a chain of grocery stores. By 1947, Bean and his son, M. Lamont Bean, opened the first Pay 'n Save drug store at Fourth Avenue and Pike Street in Seattle.

In March 1959, M. Lamont Bean became the president of Pay 'n Save and began considering operating other stores that were not pharmacies. Shortly after, Bean began an interest in Ernst Hardware, a local hardware chain owned by Seattle brothers Fred and Charles Ernst. Fred Ernst agreed to sell Ernst Hardware and its nine locations to Pay 'n Save in February 1960. In 1962, Pay 'n Save acquired Malmo Nursery and began opening Ernst-Malmo combination stores; combining hardware, lumber, garden supplies, and nursery items in one building. The first Ernst-Malmo combination store was opened at the University Village shopping center in Seattle. By 1982, Ernst was operating 68 hardware stores.