Pay 'n Pak


Pay 'n Pak was a home improvement chain that was based out of Kent, Washington. Pay 'n Pak began in 1962 and was founded by Stan Thurman, an electric and plumbing supply retailer from Longview, Washington. In 1969 Pay 'n Pak merged with Eagle Electric & Plumbing, a company run by Thurman protégé David Heerensperger. Shortly thereafter, Stan Thurman was voted out and Heerensperger became the chairman of the company until 1989 when he left to form Eagle Hardware & Garden. At the time of a hostile corporate raid attempt in 1987, Pay 'n Pak had 112 stores in the Western United States.
The original flagship store in Kent was called Pay 'n Pak Mall. It featured a departmentalized hardware store broken up into separate stores. It also contained a coffee shop as well. By the 1980s a larger store was built next to the mall which carried the same format as the other stores had and the mall was sold.
After bankruptcy in 1991, Thurman Industries bought four Pay 'n Pak stores: those located in Butte, Montana, Billings, Montana, Moses Lake, Washington, and Wenatchee, Washington. They were operated as Thurman Pay 'N Pak home centers until March 2003 when Thurman Industries liquidated the stores and closed them down. Ernst took over the Kent store and the distribution center.
Pay 'n Pak was also a sponsor of an unlimited hydroplane racing team from the late 1960s to the early 1980s and won the points championship from 1973-1975. They also sponsored the first winning turbine powered hydroplane from 1980 to 1983. The boat crashed in 1980. It would be the last boat that would carry the Pay 'n Pak name.

History