Party City: The Party Is Over! | Retail Archaeology 

Yeah they’ve basically become king for most of my party supplies because they are cheap. I’m not a big party designer. Sure if I needed to I would get more expensive stuff…but if it’s just like 5/6 people dollar stores suffice usually

Exactly, watching this video I kept thinking I was seeing a tour of a Dollar Tree.

Yea party city prices are a bit wild considering you can get the same stuff for as little as a couple bucks and probably not far from the average party city location too

We will still lose more of our childhoods

Never buying wrapping papoer there again. Bought a bunch thete once & they were alk made of some weird translucent material you could not only see through, but it didn't fold well.

Yupp. If the capital owners don't pay their slaves enough this is what happens. Retail is collapsing and no one feels bad. They're gonna wish they paid more

Exactly. We are broke. We as a nation hit the debt ceiling. We are so screwed, it's too expensive to do anything.

My rent just went up by $100 a month, and my pay went up by $0.10. If we have a party, we're not splurging on helium balloons or other useless decorations

The Biden administration said inflation was "temporary" and even "a good thing" because people had "excess savings."

People still go to party city

That’s not winning a competition, that’s straight murder. 😳 I hope all those people were able to get better jobs.

@@gateauxq4604 shouldve sold spongebob balloons

YOU weren’t ranked #2 for balloons. The store was. Stop personally identifying with national corporations. You aren’t part of them.

Would it be possible to give those people who lost their Party job a job at your store? I feel kinda bad for the ones who worked there and lost their jobs when the stores closed 😭

I think a lot of people look at the cost of stuff at Party City and say 'Why would I spend $3 on a bag of balloons when Dollar Tree has them for $1? Are they 'better'? Maybe. But in the end, they only need to last for 3 hours and then they get thrown away anyway. Napkins are there just to wipe your mouth. Why not save money there too? Even if it's $2 vs $1, that all still adds up and instead of $75 on party supplies, you spend $40, that's a fairly substantial savings on things that will just be thrown away.

Exactly

I am surprised Toys R Us went first, I thought Party City was long gone already.

Toys R Us is back!!!! The reason Toys R Us went out of business was was he died and didn’t want to leave the business to the dummies in his family that’s why abruptly closed right during Christmas season 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️💁🏽‍♀️💁🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️!!!!! It never really went anywhere they offset their merchandise to some other big box stores and to some bookstores👀👀!!!!!

@@traceytrotter9934 well don't forget that unlike toys, party supplies don't really change that much from year to year. A party supply store can afford to keep the same items on the shelf for longer, and they probably have better scan margins.

The GameStop of party stuff. Haha. GameStop is doomed too.

@spirals 73 totally does

Yep and one person even just got "insert popular cartoon character" stickers to decorate the cups and plates. Kids never knew the difference.

damn I was looking at plates online to compare before comitting to a store, am cheap, and I thought the transparent plastic plates from pc's website looked much better than any paper plates elsewhere. I'm not willing to put out real plates at parties where there'd be kids. I got some cute non tableware decor off of aliexpress and shein although I kinda regret giving them my money as it'll support the chinese government more. Dollar tree doesn't really have any special balloons, they're all circular and just have designs printed on them, even the 99 cent store doesn't do too great in this area. I'm a bit sad over their closing but I kind of understand why that is so likely to happen.

It's really dollar and 1/4 Tree now.

I went to party city to get white hair spray to look like an old man, and it looked like a ghost town

"Choose not to" or "don't know how to?"

Yeah it’s called one stop shopping 😅🤪 also they adapted good online features to compete.

You can't really "adapt" here. Specialty stores like this operate and do well because they sell a niche specialization that you can't get anywhere else. Except now you can and you don't need to make that trip when Amazon has the same products but cheaper with prime overnight delivery. Just go ahead rn and think of a niche market like say comic books, or bowling balls...now imagine if you had that same selection at Walmart one day.

There is too much overhead at these specialty stores, they are too big. We still prefer to shop outside our homes so I think small stores should be the wave of the future.

Look at Micheal’s, the craft store. They are heading to a similar situation as Party City. Then again, the reason stores are dying is because we continue to transact in the exponentially devaluating dollar and not things with intrinsic value like metals.

Everything and more!

I used to go to Ben Franklin and Woolworths for my haloween costumes. Ever hear of them?

@@boristheamerican2938 Ben Franklin, YES!! I don't have as many memories of there around Halloween, but my mom used to take us there a lot around Christmas. I remember getting holiday crafting stuff and Rudolph toys there. Also they sold these glasses that made all these snowflakes appear around lights, which was pretty cool.

@@vasilevanda2248 I bought goldfish there and my family bought 2 canaries. 5 cent 45 rpm record bin, baseball cards. Lots of cool stuff.

@@boristheamerican2938 Nice. You know, I don't remember the old location having pets or music, but I was also quite little so there's that. Cool to know though.

good story, thanx

As a former cashier, some of them will deliberately do stuff like this to Karens to keep them from coming back. It doesn't sound like that's what you were doing, but someone else reading this might need the wakeup call

I’m a part of the haunter community which is basically a fandom of haunted house makers who buy props like that from Spirit Halloween and Party City, and this past season a lot of haunters reported that their party cities weren’t letting them have after-Halloween discounted animatronics either. Tho for me I managed to get a prop at 50% off no questions asked. So maybe it’s just certain locations are stringent and some aren’t. Either way it’s not a good look at all, and even some of them joked about their bankruptcy saying they deserved it bc of that lol.

@@ApexOceanPredator what are you talking about? I swear this word “karen” is the most misused word on the planet. How is someone a Karen for demanding a store live up to its end of the deal? And why are you, a minimum wage employee, fighting so hard against giving someone a discount? Is this your store? Is the profit coming out of your pocket? No. Fuck your bosses, they pay you scraps. Give all the discounts you can.

@@cococock2418 Wow, ok, you got a lot wrong with that, so let me break it down for you princess 1. I don't work a minimum wage job, retail doesn't mean working for "scraps", dumbass 2. I was saying OP *didn't* do anything wrong and was agreeing with them 3. We often *are* disciplined out of part of our paycheck for financial mess-ups that cost the company money, like unauthorized discounts. So yes, it *is* coming out of my pocket and I don't fucking like your entitled ass enough to stick my neck out for you Go touch some grass and realize that people other than you matter too, holy shit you're spoiled

It’s been crashing since 2008.

Some other points, during covid we did still make sales through online orders and yes there is a year round costume wall where we keep up some misc costumes we would otherwise pack up.

My wife worked at ours a little over a year ago and I was shocked at how many balloons I sold she was as well she was not ready for that

Have you updated your résumé that you are about to submit to Walmart or target Should you choose to stay in the retail field?

@@yell0wberry I am sticking with Party City for the time being. My store isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

@@andrewchu5050 lol!!!!!!! A wise man once told me, if you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it

Holy shit Nice Profile Picture

@@solomoncumquats776 Father?

Since the population of places like dollar tree, Walmart, target, and Amazon, they have all together, forced the closure of many many well-known businesses, everything from supermarkets, to clothing, stores, to specialty retailers, and yes, coming soon, auto stores and fast food chains

Yes, like a H&R Block tax office 🏢 ... Some services, products are not really set up for 365/year round sales. 🛒 Big retail spots like Walmart, Super Target, Sam's Club etc cut into sales too.

The hardware stores such as Lowe’s and Home Depot sold some really good Halloween and Christmas decorations, often better than Party City offered.

Certain holidays, like Valentines, were big for balloons and/or decor, Superbowl was always busy, graduation season was HOPPING between balloons, decor, and custom announcements and invites. Friday nights and Saturday mornings were always super busy with people coming in for last minute supplies and/or picking up balloon orders. It may have changed since I left in 2015, but that was my experience.

@@laurendisney Party City stores may of seen bigger up swing in traffic during certain times BUT could this sustain hiring 40hr a week staff? Or pay for a retail space? 🛒 I'm 52 & live in a high tourist area, many party, conventions, groups. I never go into these stores.

@@DavidLLambertmobile they don't hire 40/hr staff beyond management. Few, if any, retail companies have full time floor staff. Our store had just me or the other "keyholder" on front end for the majority of the day, and closing shift had maybe 6 hours to cover depending on the day. As "keyholder" I got less than 40 hours a week despite being promised such when I was promoted, and often I'd be lucky to get 30. In my experience, they hire small numbers of very part time staff and rarely have more than 3-4 people in the store except on holidays or the busy times of Friday evening/Saturday morning. Halloween they used to hire temp staff, and while they seem to still do that the number of temp employees my store hired decreased every year, while year-round staff started doing what temp staff did. Their Halloween City stores had similar staffing practices when they existed (I was on the management team for those stores three years in a row, leaving my store for the season and returning after packup). I can't speak for retail space, beyond my store being able to move from the smallest space of any store in my area to one of the biggest retail spaces in a strip mall that remodeled specifically to get the company to rent said space. But I of course was never on the corporate side, so all I can speak to were my Party and Halloween City store's staffing practices.

Yeah, I really hope Party City can update themselves and keep going. There is use for a dedicated party supply store.

There used to be a dedicated year round costume and Halloween store in my area, and they shut down in 2020. It was the best place to get the really good Mehron face paint. A lot of people went there for stage, cosplay, and entertainer makeup and supplies. I feel like if Party City were to lean into the demographic of party entertainers (princesses for hire, professional clowns, etc) and sold some higher quality makeup and accessories, they might be able to corner that market instead of everyone going online like right now. My area also has their own party store that's been around longer and has both the retail side like party supplies, decor, fireworks and costumes, as well as a rental side with bouncy castles, carnival games, tents, outdoor advertising signs, lighting, catering equipment, and all sorts of things. But most of their money comes from rentals, which is how they support the other things, and they only have one store left. The party market really took a hit the last few years, and I'm not sure if people can justify spending the money on events like that now.

That was my first thought too. The last birthday parties I went to pre pandemic were decorated with homemade decorations and themed off stuff you could feasibly craft items yourself for. One was horse themed (not mlp just actual horses lol) and the other was Minecraft. In both situations the decorations were recycled cardboard and thrifted stuff.

that or giving the kid money to spend on what they want

You're right - and Etsy for several years has become the custom birthday/party supply place. It used to be for independent/fan artists, but I can barely find fan art on Etsy anymore because of how much copy-and-paste party supplies there are. It's actually great if you need party supplies for a kid's party that wants an older/more obscure movie or tv show, but not great for the artists that the site was originally built on. Also I don't know the legality of how Etsy gets around copyrighted material, but I'd say they are way more vulnerable now that so much on their site is clip art/"key art" from kids movies cheaply printed on to party supplies.

@@vagamer522 That too. Lots of parents would also rather skip birthday parties and take their kid to do something like Disneyland or a beach trip.

Yeah, I was wondering about this. I don't know any parents of young kids myself, but I was thinking, do parents still throw parties like this?

"I'm the Wiz!!"

Agreed - this is a very nice one. The one near me looked much more like your old video. That one in particular is next to a DSW Shoes and I think the moms let their kids run wild in the Party City next door while they shoe shop lol.

This is the 'updated/remodeled' store. They are in the process of remodeling and restructuring.

Huh. I was thinking that the location in this video looked barren, a fraction of the variety you'd get at the location in Brampton.

Canadian Tire - because when I’m buying new tires for my car, the first impulse buying item that comes into my mind is party supplies 🎉

@@collegeman1988 Ok so Canadian Tire is a weird retailer in that a very small part of their business is tires. Canadian Tire is actually Canada's Target. They're the store you go to if you want a new bicycle and also an air conditioner and a box of screws and a Christmas tree...and also some tires.

I don't have kids, but if I did and I wanted to get character-themed birthday party stuff, I'd be far more likely to walk into a Canadian Tire than a standalone Party City. But, then again, I'd be far more likely to walk into a Walmart or Loblaws/Superstore than I would a Canadian Tire for party supplies. Or, of course, Dollarama because Dollarama party supplies look good enough to me, as someone who doesn't have children who will object to me buying their hypothetical birthday party supplies at Dollarama.

The tire company probably bought Party City just for the helium. Floating tires, bay-bay!!

You'd think that custom invitations would be something they could easily do in-store. Actually, I wonder if other products could be custom made in store. That would be a great way to set them apart from the competition.

@@StarlightPrism You are onto something.

not always but a lot of times yes especially when it's convenient as you can buy other necessary items in less trips or purchases.

Ha!

Not really, because if you have a party event you technically want your stuff now by the way every dollar store especially Dollar tree has everything you need including the helium balloons! It's been a crap excuse for over a decade to blame online retail or the internet in general! The truth is simply the reason why there's a downturn in retail at large is because well there's an income deficiency across the population, coupled with the fact many of these companies have taken on huge sums of debt! When a business takes on debt okay they in turn are expecting the customers to pay for that debt via they shop there, When the customers don't have a lot of money, Then the company is cannot pay their debt they start downsizing they pretend to restructure a little bit then comes bankruptcy restructuring and ultimately they'll be liquidated. The worst thing that a chain store could ever do is to close locations largely because you have to think about the distribution, yes it is true that a severely underperforming store you would definitely want to get rid of however a lot of the times it's not just one store here there they put together a list of stores that they would like to close. the problem is simply if those stores that remain in a certain area well they might be too far out from the distribution center so then you have a rise in shipping costs... So let's say for example you have the western region and then you have the Eastern region and your distribution center is in the center, Okay so the Southwest area is no longer viable, and then of course you noticed that the central western area is also experiencing problems, so then if you close most things in the southwestern area and if you close say half of what you have in the Central West area but you still have the Eastern area and you still have locations beyond the central western area and basically to the Northwest with a few stragglers stores still near the Old South West... Well the problem is is essentially it's going to cost you a lot more money to run so there's few stragglers stores that are left and it's also going to cost you a little more money to service even the group of stores that you would still have left beyond the central western locations because you don't have enough to make the truck run worth the money! in business it actually cost you more money to run the back end of the store than it does to to run the front end of the store, logistics is largely a big deal in retail this is why Walmart blue everybody away, they put their money in logistics and they started to do so basically in the late seventies whereas Kmart failed Kmart did not put money back into the business they did not put the money into the shipping technologies that they needed to invest in through the late 70s and 80s and most of this was because they had executives that was bleeding the company dry massive embezzlement and for most of the seventies they had to high dividend to the shareholders they didn't put anything back too many people were living off the company! So yes it makes sense to close locations however you have to do it extremely strategically and sometimes you may decide whether or not to pull out of an area altogether because of distribution!

@@American-Motors-Corporation Not sure if it's an efficient use of your time to write full essays in the RU-vid comment section where few will take the time to read them.

@@noneofyourbusiness4616 I read it, I’m not sure 100% agree, given I work in retail distribution, but they do raise some valid points, but they also seemed to go off on a rant about embezzlement towards the end.

@@noneofyourbusiness4616 then move on, no need to run your mouth troll.

I don't work there 🙂

What does it say??!

@Eric It said "CUM."

@@Brollyssweetface , lol.

UPDATE! As of Sept. 7, 2023, Party City is NO LONGER in Bankruptcy. Google It.

Yeah, despite the size of the stores, Party City doesn't seem to actually have much variety in themes.

Yeah, despite the size of the stores, Party City doesn't seem to have much variety when it comes to decor themes.