.
Founding In 1893, brothers Charles and Fred Ernst started Ernst Hardware in
Seattle,
Washington. 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.
Early 1990s lawsuits . 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.
Decline 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. ==Malmo Nursery==