Party City has issued a shocking announcement on Friday that the well-known party supply retail chain will be shuttering all 850 of its locations, effective immediately, after having exhausting their financial reserves and completely running out of operational money.
Barry Litwin, the Chief Executive Officer of the New Jersey-based retailer - which has multiple locations on Long Island, including Levittown, Carle Place, Hauppauge, North Babylon, Oceanside, New Hyde Park, Massapequa, and Merrick - informed corporate employees during a video conference call that that very same day would be their very last day of employment by Party City...just five days before Christmas.
“That is without question the most difficult message that I’ve ever had to deliver,” Litwin said. “It’s really important for you to know that we’ve done everything possible that we could to try to avoid this outcome. Unfortunately, it’s necessary to commence a wind-down process immediately.”
Litwin noted that the closure was attributed to high inflation that caused costs to skyrocket, and in turn led to consumers spending less and less.
Party City, known for selling party supplies, balloons, costumes, and other related merchandise, had already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2023; at the time they reported $1 billion in assets and $10 billion in liabilities. However, the action helped little and the company considered filing for bankruptcy a second time earlier in December amid cancelled payments to vendors and struggled to pay rent at some of their locations.