Pay 'n Save Drug Stores

If you grew up in the Pacific Northwest from the '60s to the '80s, you no doubt remember this sign:

Pay 'n Save's ubiquitous blue/green block letter signs were everywhere in strip malls, REAL malls and shopping centers all over the Pacific Northwest, well into California and as far east as Montana and Wyoming.

The Seattle based drug store chain's blue/green colour scheme did not end at just their signs. Their stores interiors and their house brand of products all had it too.

....and their bags.....

I worked at a Pay n' Save. And at the end of the day, after I came home and I took my blue vest, blue pants and green work shirt off. I immediately took a shower to make absolutely sure I got ALL this blue/green crap off of me. Just to make sure.....

You quickly begin to HATE corporate colour schemes in a few weeks.

Some old timers I remember still got away with this shirt

Pay 'n Save grew to be force to be reckoned with. QUICKLY. (Even at their ORIGINAL location at 4th & Pike Street in Seattle, which - KUDOS for them, was STILL in business. until the day Pay 'n Save went officially bankrupt.)

They also had a hydroplane, the popular Miss Pay 'n Save.

 It acquired Fred Ernst's hardware chain and Malmo Nurseries in 1959. And the snazziest department store this side of Frederick & Nelson, Rhodes in 1968....

The Rhodes department store chain became Lamont's in 1970.

The Pay 'n Save Empire had grown to also include Schuck's Auto Supply, Yard Birds and Bi-Mart. But like many regional retail chains, over expansion in the '70s, various ownerships and increased competition from national chains in the '80s led to the once giant retailer's demise in the late '80s. Pay 'n Save was sold to competitor Payless Drug in 1989 and Payless was absorbed by the national Rite-Aid chain in 1996.

 

Western Family

Still very much around, but remember the CLASSIC cans?

CLASSIC ORIGINAL Women's Suffrage Poster

It's pretty scary for women TODAY, with the Republican party wanting to roll back women's rights back to the stone age. Therefore, you might want to save and print this little 1920 women's suffrage poster and hang it visible to any, um "elephants" in the room........And remind them you're not happy.....

Generic Products of The '80s

 Generic products (not to be confused with store or house brand named products, although they are identical in quality) were a fad of the early 1980s. With stark packaging, listing little more than the product name, ingredients, nutritional information, manufacturer and UPC bar code.

The idea behind them was by eliminating the cost for logos, descriptive copy, and photos/illustrations on the packaging, the savings could be passed on to consumers. Even though much of these were stock images anyway and in reality bore little extra cost in the actual manufacturing process.

It's been said generic products were factory seconds and had little to no taste or nutritional value. That was pretty much false as generic products were often manufactured at the same processing plants as name brand items (even on the same lines!) and in any blindfolded test it was hard to tell the difference between say, a generic can of corn and a name brand one. And some even thought the generic packaged products tasted better.

First appearing in 1981, they reached their peak in 1983 and 1984. However, as I mentioned, the savings from printing on the labels was very small overall and many retail chains began repackaging their generic products under house/store brand names. They completely disappeared by 1988    

They were often in uniform aisles in the store, where every item was generic.

They looked like this.....

....but felt like this.

The rock group Public Image Ltd. famously spoofed the generic craze on their 1985 album, simply titled Album (for vinyl releases) Cassette (for cassette releases of Album) and Compact Disc (for CD releases of Album)

See also The Return of Generic Products

The Spirit of '76