High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Ernst Home Centers, Inc. was an chain of home improvement retail stores founded in Seattle, Washington. Ernst was started in 1893 by Seattle brothers Charles and Fred Ernst and became a division of Pay `n Save, one of the largest retail companies in the Northwestern United States, in 1960. After a 1984 takeover of Pay `n Save, Ernst was sold off and went public in 1994. Following several highly publicized lawsuits and a failed attempt to open larger stores, the company filed for bankruptcy in 1996 and liquidated in early 1997. At the company`s peak, it operated 95 stores in 12 western U.S. states.