Party City will soon be no more. The iconic party store’s CEO announced Friday it was going out of business and is closing its approximately 850 stores that are dotted across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. The executive, Barry Litwin, told corporate staffers their jobs were being axed immediately and that Friday was their final day of employment. “That is without question the most difficult message that I’ve ever had to deliver,” he said, according to a CNN report. Litwin, who has been in the job for four months, said he did “everything possible” to save the company but his efforts ultimately fell short. Party City has been in financial peril for years, having declared bankruptcy in Jan. 2023 as it struggled to pay off its $1.7 billion debt load. CNN reported the company struggled to contend with e-commerce competitors like Amazon and was “hurt” by a recent helium shortage that impacted its crucial balloon business. Party City is the largest party supply store in the states, having employed 6,400 full-time and 10,100 part-time workers as of 2021.
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