The party is over for Party City as the retail giant announced Friday it’s going out of business and immediately closing all its stores after nearly 40 years.
The party supply chain told employees in a Friday meeting that it would be their final day working for the New Jersey-based company, according to CNN.
“That is without question the most difficult message that I’ve ever had to deliver,” CEO Barry Litwin reportedly said in a video conference call, telling workers they were losing their jobs five days before Christmas and would be cut loose sans severance pay or benefits.
Litwin announced in August he was taking over leadership of the struggling company and its more than 700 stores during a “pivotal” period of repositioning for the business.
The country’s largest party supply store declared bankruptcy at the start of 2023, which allowed the company to cancel nearly $1 billion in debt, CNN reported. Still its problems continued. More than 80 stores were closed between 2022 and 2024. There are more than 30 Party City stores in Illinois.
Party City’s struggles were blamed on myriad factors, including competition from massive retailers like Amazon and Walmart. The company was also hurt by the pandemic when a helium shortage reportedly crippled its lucrative balloon business during a period that was already challenging.
Corporate staffers had an inkling the business was folding in recent weeks, according to CNN. The product development team was recently told not to attend an annual meeting with vendors because Party City was no longer paying those suppliers. But employees were said to have been caught off-guard by Friday’s sudden announcement.
Party City did not respond to a Daily News request for comment.
Other businesses struggling to stay afloat in 2024 include the Red Lobster seafood chain and Big Lots home stores, the latter of which said Thursday it would launch going-out-of-business sales at all of its locations after a deal to save the company from bankruptcy fell apart.
Big Lots filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September. Red Lobster did the same in May, then announced in September it had found a white knight to keep the eatery cooking.