Ernst дүкендер тізбегінің тарихы

Chain of home improvement retail stores
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.) 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 October 15, 1984, Pay 'n Save was officially sold to the Trumps for $358 million (~$ in ). 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 March 1986, Hal Smith, former president of Irvine, California based Builders Emporium, succeeded Mike Rouleau as president and CEO of Ernst. In 1987 and 1988, Ernst remodeled and upgraded all of its stores and, in late 1990, tested a new concept store in West Seattle. The new concept featured garden like nurseries, an espresso cart, wider aisles, expanded merchandise, brighter signs and other modern amenities. Ernst opened two more of the new concept stores in Lynnwood, Washington and Spokane, Washington in 1991.

In April 1992, Ernst filed a lawsuit against retailer Wal Mart claiming the discount chain stole Ernst's registered advertising slogan ("Always the right price. Always."). Ernst asked the court to force Wal Mart to stop using their slogan and pay unspecified damages to the retailer. Three months later, Ernst sued another retailer, Seattle based home improvement chain Eagle Hardware & Garden, for unfair competition and violation of the state's Consumer Protection Act. The company claimed Eagle's comparisons of prices for various products were false and deceptive. Eagle, in turn, accused Ernst of also misleading consumers with its advertising and defamation for suing Eagle just before the newly formed company went public. At the same time of the Eagle suit, Ernst went after Pay 'n Save, accusing it of illegal competition for selling nursery products in 15 Washington shopping centers the two retailers operated in. Ernst had contracts with the owners of the 15 shopping centers to be the primary or exclusive seller of nursery products in them. PayLess Drug Stores, who had then recently acquired Pay 'n Save, hit the chain with a counterclaim, which accused Ernst of selling camera film and film processing services at eight shopping centers where PayLess had the sole right to sell those services. Union complaints about off the clock work and unlawful pay practices prompted the chain to file the lawsuit alleging defamation and consumer protection violations by the union and its legal counsel. Ernst later announced it would stop selling the specific toilets.

In June 1994, Ernst announced plans to go public and to raise $50 million (~$ in ) through a stock sale to open 55 superstores over the next three years. The company began opening the superstores, averaged at , in 1991. On July 12, 1996, Ernst filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced the closure of 25 stores. The filing came after Ernst reported a loss of nearly $116 million in the company's past three quarters. At the time, Ernst was operating 53 stores in six U. S. states and had about 2,000 full and part time employees. Ernst began its final going out of business sale on November 23.

Charles Malmo, an immigrant from Norway, founded a seed store on Second Avenue in Seattle in 1893. Malmo was credited with being first in the Northwest to propagate and grow his own nursery stock rather than import ornamental shrubs from Japan, the Netherlands and England. In 1930, he opened the first "garden department store" on the Pacific Coast, selling all that was needed for the "most elaborate garden, from seeds to large trees," as he humbly asserted during the opening festivities. His son Clark bought to cultivate at the present site of University Village shopping mall. Many of the mature yards surrounding old Laurelhurst homes in Seattle today were the work of the Malmos. In 1962, the Malmos sold their business to Pay 'n Save and became a wholly owned subsidiary, operated by Pay 'n Save as part of its Ernst stores, which were then called Ernst Malmo.