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The party is over.
Party City, once a go-to stop for Halloween costumes and celebration essentials, is planning to close all its stores after nearly 40 years in business. In a meeting with corporate employees Friday, chief executive Barry Litwin said the retailer was “winding down” operations immediately and that it was their last day of employment, CNN reported.
Employees at three Party City stores told The Washington Post that they were notified the closures would occur by the end of February. Calls to multiple other locations on Friday went to voicemail.
Party City, which has nearly 800 stores across the country, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Post.
Party City has three stores in Indianapolis (10537 East Washington St., 8703 Hardegan St., and 3622 Bethany Road) and stores in Fishers, Avon and Carmel.
Party City employed about 5,700 full- and 9,500 part-time workers as of 2022, according to SEC filings. It filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2023 as it struggled with $1.7 billion in debt; it exited in September after shaving nearly $1 billion of debt. Executives had been considering a second bankruptcy filing earlier this month, Bloomberg reported.
In a LinkedIn post shortly after taking over the top job in August, Litwin said the company’s biggest priority was “strengthening its financial health.” In a video conference call Friday, according to CNN, he said that the company’s “very best efforts have not been enough to overcome” its financial struggles.
The news is the latest in a flurry of retail bankruptcies and store closures. More than 7,300 stores are projected to disappear by the end of 2024, compared with about 5,500 in 2023, according to a December report from Coresight Research. Forty-eight retailers have filed for bankruptcy this year – including Express and Joann – compared with 25 in 2023. And this week, Big Lots announced plans to liquidate its 900 stores after an asset sale to an affiliate of the private equity firm Nexus Capital Management fell through.
Founded in 1986 by Steve Mandell, Party City thrived for decades a destination for themed party decor, birthday balloons, Halloween costumes, plastic plates and table cloths. In 1989, it began franchising stores, expanding its footprint across the country.
But business began to slow as online stores and seasonal pop-ups like Spirit Halloween enticed customers away with convenience and lower prices.
Now, the Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based company is the latest in a string of specialty retailers to struggle as superstores like Walmart and Costco and online retailers like Amazon, Temu and Shein snap up customers. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
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