PARTY City CEO Barry Litwin says the company did “everything possible” to avoid shutting the business down after almost 40 years in operation.
In a video conference to employees obtained by CNN, Litwin said the decision was “without question the most difficult message that I’ve ever had to deliver.”
Party CEO Barry Litwin delivered the message to employees on Friday[/caption]
Litwin, who only took on the role four months ago, assured staff members that senior management tried their best to avoid a full scale shutdown.
“It’s really important for you to know that we’ve done everything possible that we could to try to avoid this outcome,” Litwin said.
“Unfortunately, it’s necessary to commence a winddown process immediately.”
With the news arriving just days before the holiday season, Litwin said that Party City’s “very best efforts have not been enough to overcome” its financial challenges.
The U.S. Sun contacted various Party City stores at the time of writing.
Party City’s Paramus store in New Jersey said the location would remain open until February to late March 2025, depending on what product was available.
The U.S. Sun understands Party City employees were first informed of the store closures on Thursday this week.
Employees told The U.S. Sun they would be filling balloon orders until New Year’s Eve and could not guarantee staffing in the new year.
Party City, which is the largest party supply store in the US, exited bankruptcy in September 2023.
The move canceled nearly $1 billion in debt and kept the majority of its over 800 US stores open.
However, the retailer had closed more than 80 stores between the end of 2022 to August 2024.
The retailer first declared bankruptcy in January 2023 and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
PARTY’S OVER
According to the Party City website, the retailer has been in business since 1986.
“We’ve been in the business for more than thirty years, growing from a single location to a national chain with stores in most states,” the website said.
“Our superstores are a one-stop shops for party supplies from A to Z, many of them exclusive to Party City.”
RETAIL APOCALYPSE
The U.S. Sun reports on all things retail, including a raft of store closures that have occurred in 2024.
The U.S. Sun this week revealed confirmation it had no plans to shut down its flagship Manhattan store.
The future of its Herald Square location, which first opened 102 years ago, was up in the air amid an investor push to hive it off.
According to an exclusive statement obtained by The U.S. Sun, the retailer signaled it had no plans to shut down the Herald Square operation.
A number of major retailers are suffering as the sector grapples with changing consumer behavior, the rise of e-commerce, and inflationary pressures sparked by the pandemic.
With a raft of chains, including Walmart, winding back their retail footprint, experts say retailers are in financial strife due to increased borrowing costs and consumers tightening their wallets amid ongoing cost of living pressures.
US braces for ‘45,000 store closures’
Some 45,000 bricks-and-mortar stores could close in the next five years, experts have warned.
Several major retailers have announced store closures or gone out of business altogether in recent years.
Chains such as Foot Locker, Sally Beauty, Tuesday Morning, Shore City, Z Gallerie, and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams have all gone out of business.
Bed Bath & Beyond has closed all of its brick-and-mortar stores and is now an online-only retailer.
The most affected retailers have been clothing, consumer electronics, sporting goods, hobby, book, music, and home furnishing stores since the start of 2019.
UBS has predicted the total number of retail stores will drop by 45k from 958k to 913k.
Despite that, the report says that certain stores should thrive while others decline.
It said retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and Target, could be among the winners.
