If you walk into a typical Party City store today, you’ll find anything but a party atmosphere—and it’s easy to see why the retailer is going out of business. Recent visitors to the location on Manhattan’s affluent Upper West Side, for example, could stroll across dull linoleum floors under harsh neon lighting that gave dental-office vibes much more than a dancefloor feel. And there was nothing special to celebrate in the aisles of drab merchandise: just paper plates, table covers, greeting cards and other party supplies that a shopper could quite easily find at Amazon, Walmart, or even dollar stores.
In December, Party City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection—for the second time in two years—and announced it would wind down its business and close its stores after almost four decades. The lamentations of nostalgic shoppers who once loved Party City filled social media, but many admitted they had stopped patronizing it years ago. And few if any retail insiders were surprised.
