Fay's Drug

A Fay's brand matchbook from the 1970s

In 1958, the first Fay's Drug Store was opened in Fairmount, New York by Henry A. Panasci, Jr. and his father Henry Panasci Sr. The store was named after Faye Panasci, wife of Henry Panasci, Jr.

Fay's steadily grew in Central New York—the resulting Fay's Drugs Company, Inc. was incorporated on October 20, 1966 and Fay's Drugs opened its headquarters in Syracuse, New York with the bulk of its operations residing in Liverpool, New York. At its peak there were over 300 stores operating in New York and Northeast Pennsylvania. Fay's enjoyed #1 market share in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany.

In 1979 Fay's acquired the Key Drug store chain in Rochester, NY and converted them to Fay's; further expanding their Rochester area market.[1]

In 1991, Fay's Drugs acquired the 48 drug stores operated by Victory Markets as Carls Drugs. Carls Drugs was founded by Carl Panasci, brother and uncle to the Fay's Drugs founders.[2]

In the mid-1990s, Fay's Drugs decide to divest itself of its non-core subsidiaries. The company closed nine under-performing stores in its Paper Cutter subsidiary in April 1993.[3] In 1996, the company sold its remaining 29 Paper Cutter stores to Long Island-based Party Experience Inc., a chain of party- and holiday-oriented supply stores,[4] which converted the Paper Cutter stores to the Party Experience format the following year.[5]

In December 1995, the company sold its Wheels Discount Auto Supply subsidiary with its 82 auto parts stores in New York and Pennsylvania to the Sears-owned Western Auto Supply for $37 million (~$61 million in 2021).[6][7]

In 1996, Fay's Drugs was sold to JCPenney for $285 million in stock.[8][9] JCPenney merged its drug operations into Eckerd in 1997.[10] Many of the original Fay's Drugs locations that have not been closed in favor of stand-alone Eckerd stores (many now Rite Aid and Walgreens locations) still feature the familiar Fay's aisle and pharmacy formats that served as models for drug chains nationwide.