Pay 'n Pak

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Pay ’N Pak Stores, Inc. grew from Stan Thurman’s Washington plumbing-and-electrical-supply business into a distinctly Northwest answer to the do-it-yourself boom. Established in 1961, the company’s early stores gave homeowners a place to pick up wire, pipe, lumber, tools, and the confidence to attempt a weekend project of questionable structural wisdom.

A 1969 merger with Eagle Electric & Plumbing Supply and Buzzard Electrical & Plumbing Supply expanded the operation, which became a public company. David J. Heerensperger emerged as its central executive figure, while Pay ’N Pak continued to build its regional footprint from Kent, Washington.

By the mid-to-late 1980s, the chain operated more than 100 stores across the western United States. Its big, department-like home centers stocked materials for remodeling, repair, gardens, kitchens, and garages—basically everything needed to turn “one small fix” into three trips and a new respect for plumbing.

A management-led leveraged buyout took Pay ’N Pak private in 1987–1988. Competition, debt, and shifting home-improvement retail economics caught up with the chain; it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 21, 1991, and its remaining stores were liquidated in 1992. Thurman Industries purchased four former locations, operating them as Thurman Pay ’N Pak until their closure in 2003.

Our Pay 'n Pak collection celebrates the sawdust-scented, fluorescent-lit era when a hardware run could become a full-scale domestic expedition.