Payless Chief to Head Merged Drugstore Chains

Tim McAlear, head of the Payless drugstore chain, will be named chief executive of the combined Thrifty Drug Stores-Payless entity when the companies merge early next year, The Times has learned.

Kmart last week announced it will sell its Payless chain to TCH Corp., the parent company of Los Angeles-based Thrifty, for more than $1 billion in cash and securities.

McAlear is a 30-year veteran of Kmart who joined Payless in 1987. He is credited with improving the pharmacy operations at Payless.

Payless, based in Wilsonville, Ore., has 572 stores in 12 Western states, including about 200 in California. With 497 stores in California, Thrifty is the state’s largest drugstore retailer.

Thrifty is controlled by Leonard Green & Partners, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Leonard Green would not comment on plans for the top spot at the merged company, but sources said executives at Thrifty were informed of the decision Monday. It was unclear what role Dan Seigel, Thrifty’s chief executive, would have in the new organization.