The country's biggest party store is shutting down. This video discusses the company's history while attempting to identify five main reasons behind its decline.Once again, here's Company Man Mike's list.
I begin my reaction by being a good environmentalist and recycling what I wrote two years ago.
Party City has been in trouble for a while, which fits one of the patterns for chains that fail during the Retail Apocalypse. All of them had issues that brought them down when a crisis hit.The improper inventory reports along with the two new owners all count as reasons why Party City was in trouble even before the pandemic, which Company Man Mike lists among the external factors, along with the helium shortage increasing the prices of balloons and decreasing their sales.* I've mentioned the role of private equity in the failure of retail chains many times before, most recently in 'Bankrupt - 99 Cents Only Stores' by Bright Sun Films, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse. It took more than a decade, but the debt from the leveraged buyout finally caught up with Party City.
As for who benefits from the departure of Party City from the market, in addition to the usual suspects of Amazon and Walmart, Company Man Mike mentioned Walgreens, which is having its own issues and could use the boost, and Spirit Halloween. CNBC and Company Man have videos about both chains, which I plan on using in future Retail Apocalypse posts. Stay tuned for those after I cover Golden Globes and Critics Choice screenplay nominees to celebrate National Screenwriters Day as the first Sunday entertainment feature of 2025.
*As I wrote about the helium shortage two years ago, "That's something I haven't blogged about but should."
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