Fay's Drug

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Fay’s Drug began in Central New York in 1958, when pharmacists Henry A. Panasci Sr. and Henry A. Panasci Jr. opened their first store. The name honored Henry Jr.’s wife, Faye—minus the final “e,” reportedly to save a few dollars on signs. Frugal branding: timeless behavior.

The company incorporated as Fay’s Drug Co. in 1966, grew from its Liverpool, New York headquarters, and went public in 1969. Fay’s expanded across upstate New York and into nearby states, becoming a familiar stop for prescriptions, film developing, cosmetics, snacks, and the miscellaneous necessities that somehow always appeared on the list.

By the mid-1990s, Fay’s was a major northeastern drugstore operator, with more than 270 retail locations at the time of its 1996 sale. Its wider retail orbit also included Wheels Discount Auto Supply and The Paper Cutter, because one apparently could not live on cough drops alone.

J.C. Penney completed its acquisition of Fay’s Inc. on October 14, 1996. The chain was folded into Penney’s drugstore operations, and the Fay’s banner was rebranded to Eckerd in 1997. The neighborhood pharmacy survived in new colors; the old sign did not.

Our Fay's Drug collection celebrates the clean, confident look of an upstate retail original: prescription counters, aisle markers, parking-lot errands, and the corporate ghost of the store that had whatever you needed—plus one thing you definitely did not plan to buy.