Pic 'N' Save
| Industry | Retail |
|---|---|
| Fate | Acquired by Big Lots |
| Founded | 1950 |
| Defunct | 2002 |
| Headquarters | Culver City, California, United States |
Key people | William Zimmerman |
| Products | Closeout products |
| Website | None |
Pic 'N' Save was, at one time, the second-largest closeout retail chain in the United States. Financial troubles caused the chain to close many of the markets in the late-1990s and early-2000s.
History
William Zimmerman founded Pic 'N' Save Corporation in 1950 in Culver City, California. By 1985, it operated 90 stores in California and six other Western U.S. states. In 1991, the company changed its name to MacFrugals. In Los Angeles in the 1980s, there was at least one store, on Vine Street in Hollywood, that operated under the name "Pic 'N' Save". It later expanded to the Southwest and the South, but left both markets in the late 1990s. In 1997, Consolidated Stores Corporation bought out the remaining 'MacFrugals' stores for $995 million in stock.[1] In 2002, Big Lots converted them into the Big Lots brand.[2] It should be noted that this company has no connection to the "Pic N' Save" chain based in northeast Florida in the 1950s-1990s.
In popular culture
In the 1983 film 10 to Midnight, detectives Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) and McCann (Andrew Stevens) are en route to inform the parents of a murder victim of their daughter's demise when they pass a Pic 'N' Save, next to a Thrifty Drug Store; this location was at 11341 National Boulevard in Los Angeles.
In Troop Beverly Hills (1989) when Freddy discovers soon-to-be ex-wife Phyllis has just gone on a shopping spree using their joint credit cards, he tells her to have her fun now cause after the divorce she'll "be shopping at the Pic 'N' Save."
Pic 'N' Save's parking lot, store front, and signs were also featured in the 1998 film, Slums of Beverly Hills.