Phar-Mor: Remembering Discount Shopping and Movie Rentals
Phar-Mor combined discount shopping, pharmacy services, and inexpensive movie rentals. Explore its Mahoning Valley beginnings, rapid expansion, financial scandal, and final closure in 2002.
Opening
For some customers, Phar-Mor was part of a weekly family routine.
As the chain prepared to close in 2002, Youngstown resident Evelyn McLendon told The Vindicator that she and her mother had shopped at the Belmont Avenue location every Saturday for years. Their final visits meant losing a familiar tradition.
That memory reveals a side of Phar-Mor that its financial scandal can overshadow.
Customers came for prescriptions, household supplies, snacks, and bargains. Its video departments also offered inexpensive rentals, giving shoppers another reason to visit.
Phar-Mor disappeared in 2002. Its story includes both ordinary shopping memories and a dramatic example of how concealed financial losses can undermine a growing business.
At a Glance
| Detail | History |
|---|---|
| Place | Phar-Mor |
| Also known as | Phar Mor; stylized as PHA℞-MOR |
| Historical location | Based in Youngstown, Ohio; first store at Great East Plaza in Niles |
| Category | Deep-discount drugstore and general merchandise retailer |
| Opened/established | 1982 |
| Closed/disappeared | Remaining stores liquidated in 2002 |
| Current status | Original chain defunct |
| Remembered for | Discount prices, “power buying,” pharmacy services, and video rentals |
Historical reporting documents the Niles opening and Youngstown headquarters. Contemporary coverage records the final liquidation of the remaining 73 stores.
How It Began
Michael “Mickey” Monus and David Shapira founded Phar-Mor in 1982. The chain was based in Youngstown, Ohio. Its first store opened at Great East Plaza in nearby Niles.
Phar-Mor built its identity around deep discounts.
Its “power buying” strategy involved purchasing large quantities of changing merchandise. The aim was to offer prices that would encourage customers to make the trip and explore the aisles.
Expansion followed quickly. When the company entered bankruptcy in August 1992, it had more than 300 stores and approximately 25,000 employees.
Within a decade, a business born in the Mahoning Valley had become a major national retailer.
What Made It Special
Shopping felt like a bargain hunt
Phar-Mor’s changing merchandise helped give customers a reason to browse.
In a 2002 interview with The Vindicator, Youngstown State University business professor David Burns described the appeal as a hunt for inexpensive finds. He connected that experience with the chain’s original power-buying strategy.
A customer might arrive for a planned purchase and discover something else along the way. The possibility of an unexpected deal was part of the attraction.
More than a prescription stop
Phar-Mor brought several errands together.
Contemporary reporting describes shoppers finding prescriptions, shampoo, snacks, paper products, and other merchandise in one location. The store’s appeal extended beyond its pharmacy counter.
For households watching their spending, that combination could make Phar-Mor a regular destination.
Movie rentals added another reason to visit
Phar-Mor also became a significant video-rental retailer.
A May 1995 Supermarket News report described earlier rental prices as low as 49 cents in some markets. It documented 143 video departments and announced price increases, including a new two-night rate for catalog titles.
Those figures belong to particular periods and markets. They should not be treated as a single price that applied throughout the chain’s history.
Still, the video departments gave Phar-Mor a distinctive place in the years when watching a movie at home often began with choosing a physical rental.
A hometown connection
In the Mahoning Valley, Phar-Mor was also a locally rooted company.
The 2002 closing coverage captured customers who had visited since their school years and others who had made shopping there a family tradition. Their comments show how a large chain could become part of everyday local life.
The Final Chapter
The financial scandal
In 1992, Phar-Mor’s rapid growth collided with revelations of fraud.
A federal court opinion describes a scheme that concealed substantial operating losses and overstated income. The resulting financial information presented a false picture of the company’s profitability.
Phar-Mor filed for bankruptcy protection on August 17, 1992.
PBS examined the scandal in its 1994 FRONTLINE documentary, How to Steal $500 Million. The program investigated how a major financial shortfall remained hidden from auditors over several years.
A recovery that did not last
The first bankruptcy did not immediately end the chain.
Phar-Mor reorganized and continued operating. However, its later years brought renewed losses, competitive pressure, and difficulty maintaining a distinctive retail position.
The company filed for bankruptcy again in September 2001. Management cited several pressures, including increased competition, changing buying habits, vendor credit terms, and expensive debt.
The final liquidation
The second bankruptcy ended differently.
A federal appeals court opinion records that the bankruptcy court authorized the sale of substantially all Phar-Mor’s assets on July 18, 2002. Final inventory counts and liquidation sales followed.
Contemporary trade reporting stated that the remaining 73 stores would close as part of the asset sale.
The chain’s disappearance ended both a retail business and the routines of customers who had relied on it.
What’s There Now?
Phar-Mor’s former locations do not share one present-day outcome.
The 2002 asset sale included purchases by Giant Eagle, CVS, and other retailers. However, an asset purchase does not establish which business occupies a former storefront today.
A local follow-up should begin with the store’s exact address. Property records, current tenant information, planning documents, and dated photographs can then establish what happened to the building.
Old receipts, advertisements, and photographs may also help confirm a location and its operating years.
Current-site verification: No individual former Phar-Mor property has been verified for this chain overview as of October 12, 2026.
Do You Remember Phar-Mor?
Did your family visit Phar-Mor for bargains, prescriptions, or movie rentals? What location did you shop at, and what purchase or rental do you remember most?
Share your memories in the comments, including the city and approximate year.
If you have storefront photographs, advertisements, receipts, rental materials, or employee keepsakes, tell Forgotten Spots about them. Please include any known dates and whether you own the material or have permission to share it.
Your contribution could help preserve the history of a particular store and the people who visited it.
Sources and Credits
- Metro Monthly — “Phar-Mor’s demise was inevitable, analysts say”. Documents the first Niles store and the chain’s final liquidation.
- The Vindicator — “Its promise unfulfilled, chain to die”, July 18, 2002. Covers power buying, recovery, and later business difficulties.
- The Vindicator — “Shoppers get set to move on”, August 10, 2002. Provides attributed customer memories and descriptions of the merchandise.
- Supermarket News — “Phar-Mor raising rates for its video rentals”, May 1, 1995. Documents rental prices and video departments.
- In re Phar-Mor Securities Litigation, 900 F. Supp. 777. Court opinion describing the concealed losses and overstated income.
- PBS FRONTLINE — “How to Steal $500 Million”. Documentary investigation of the financial scandal.
- Giant Eagle, Inc. v. Phar-Mor, Inc.. Court opinion documenting the July 2002 asset-sale authorization.