[citation needed] Peyton Hawes and William Armitage acquired a controlling interest in five drug stores in three communities in Oregon and Washington, which were named PayLess, and grew their chain through both acquisition and internal expansion.

[citation needed] By 1990, PayLess operated in nine western states before its parent company was acquired by Rite Aid and the stores rebranded.

By the time their 100th store opened in Studio City in 1950,[9] Thrifty ranged as far north as Santa Rosa, California, and as far south as San Diego.

[11][12] Store grand opening events were always a large spectacle, with politicians as well as movie and television celebrities involved in the ceremonies.

[13] A neon Thrifty Drug Store sign is visible in the background of a scene from the 1954 Judy Garland version of A Star Is Born.

[14] Until the early 1980s, every Thrifty store featured a self-service tube tester, usually located near the cosmetics display case.

Vacuum tubes were still used in a wide variety of consumer electronics such as TVs and radios, and the local Thrifty store was a convenient place to test them and purchase replacements.

[19] During the 1980s, Thrifty further diversified by entering into several joint ventures with Herbert Haft and his East Coast–based Dart Drug that would introduce Crown Books and Trak Auto to the West Coast.

[31] Rite Aid preserved the Thrifty Ice Cream brand because it won numerous awards in its history,[32][33] and remained well known for its affordable prices, quirky flavors, and iconic cylinder-shaped scoops.

[35][36] Like most early-twentieth-century drug stores featuring an in-store grill and soda fountain, Thrifty initially purchased ice cream from local suppliers.

However, as Thrifty constantly opened new stores and expanded rapidly throughout Los Angeles, it became increasingly difficult to secure a steady supply of high-quality ice cream at a low price.

Intended to supply the then-existing 450 Thrifty stores as well as outside purveyors, the new facility was initially capable of producing 16 million gallons of ice cream annually.

The reborn Farrell's franchise tested a hundred brands before reselecting Thrifty as its supplier and winning the Orange County Register's 2010 Best Ice Cream contest.

Reporting on Thrifty's thirteenth consecutive gold at both fairs in 1961, the Torrance Herald explained that ice cream at these "two widely acclaimed competitions" is judged on flavor, body, texture, sanitation, color, and packaging.

[62] In May 2018, Albertsons announced that it plans to sell the Thrifty branded ice cream at its groceries stores (such as Vons and Safeway), but the announcement left many questions unanswered, such as would it keep the Thrifty manufacturing facility in El Monte, would it continue to use its current ice cream manufacturing recipes, would it keep the in-store scoop shops or would it keep the current price structure.

[63] In August 2018, Rite Aid announced that it had decided to call off its proposed merger with Albertsons and remain independent for the moment.

[66] The October 2023 Rite-Aid Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing resulted in the closure of 31 Rite Aid locations in California that had Thrifty Ice Cream scoop counters.