The party’s over for Party City.
CEO Barry Litwin told corporate employees Friday that the party supplies chain is officially going out of business and would be “winding down” operations immediately, CNN reported.
The company has four stores in the Kansas City area. Those include Independence (19850 E. Jackson Drive), near Liberty (8373 N. Booth Ave.), Lee’s Summit (940 NE Sam Walton Lane), and Overland Park (8400 W. 135th St.).
Contacted by The Star, employees at those stores said they had been told they would be closing sometime in February and that they would not be accepting balloon orders after Jan. 1.
Hours are expected to remain the same until the stores close.
Party City sells balloons, costumes and other decorations. Facing increased competition from online retailers like Amazon, larger brick-and-mortar retailers like Walmart, and seasonal pop-up stores like Spirit Halloween, it declared bankruptcy in January 2023, exiting bankruptcy that September. It owned roughly 800 U.S. stores at that time but carried a large debt load of around $800 million.
The company has closed a few Kansas City area locations in the past two years, including one at 5808 Antioch Road in Merriam Town Center and another in the Northland at 8321 NW Roanridge Road (it is now a Best Buy).
