It was announced today that all Party City stores are going to be closing, very soon.
I can't say that I didn't see this coming from miles away.
For the last several years, I've noticed much of their Halloween stock has been the same, save for the animatronics, which still seemed to be a very new thing to the company. The hanging ghouls, the skeletons, the cutesy, family-friendly stuff...they've basically just been recycling it all since at least 2019 or so, with a couple of occasional new additions thrown in. I can't remember the last time I went to Party City expecting to be "wowed", save for the Terrifier release.
And from what I hear, those that preordered the animatronics this past season, generally got shafted. Preorders being cancelled, items not actually coming in stock until a week or two before Halloween...I heard so many stories around the community. Not to mention the fact that the product that almost put them back on the map, Rattles the groundbreaking skeleton, seemed to be spawning copycats from every single other retailer out there. (Seriously, was there anyone who didn't produce an enormous skeleton groundbreaker for 2024? Maybe Spirit?)
(I have no idea if this is official Party City Rattles either, but it's the only one of these I've ever encountered in person.)
All in all, it's really seemed as though Party City just couldn't keep up within the Halloween market anymore. (Also I don't think there's a huge market for themed party supplies in general anymore, putting Halloween aside for a moment. I don't know too many kids who currently obsess over their birthday party theme the way some of us did years ago.)
It's very sad to me, though, because Party City was once my ultimate Halloween haven.
(This was taken at their Friends & Family event this past season. Not the most flattering picture of me but it was summer which means I was most likely miserable, and I'm pretty sure I was getting over a migraine.)
As a child, Party City was the place to go for Halloween. I grew up in the 90s, before pop-up Halloween shops really took off, but Party City was probably the closest thing we had back then to a Spirit Halloween-esque store. Life-size animatronics weren't really a thing yet, but Party City was full of working fog machines, motionette figures, costumed employees (usually at least one outside near the highway holding up a sign declaring 'HALLOWEEN'), and spooky sounds and music blasting through the overhead speakers. Going to Party City in October was truly an experience.
Party City, throughout my childhood, also boasted the largest costume selection I had ever seen, and could probably ever imagine. Their entire back wall would be covered in photographs of costumed people; children, teens, adults, even babies, all modeling different getups to choose from until you found your perfect disguise. Once you'd made a decision, you'd give the number printed next to the costume to one of the employees (to my knowledge they always hired seasonally for Halloween), and they would go into their back room, which I always imagined as some sort of magical, magical, endless, spooky abyss, and pull out the costume of choice (or occasionally tell me they didn't have it in my size...this happened with Minnie Mouse several times).
The costume decision-making process was
always a long one. (I have a more in-depth post about that
here.) Having so many possibilities laid out before me, as to what to do on the most important day of my year, was something that required the utmost contemplation. I would often leave Party City feeling like I'd just made a life-altering decision, such as one about a relationship or career. But it didn't stop there.
They often had pamphlets, advertising their costumes. Sometimes we'd get them in the mail, but more often, I would simply grab one from the store when we went. And then I would go home and pore over those pamphlets, imagining what I may be the next year, or when I was a teenager, or an adult, or even what I wish I could have been as a baby. I'd even make up stories, that all of the models were attending one huge Halloween party, and I would imagine why they'd each chosen their costume, who was friends with who, what songs they may be dancing to, etc.
I can honestly only remember a few years of my childhood, and even early adulthood, where my costume didn't come from Party City. And these October weekends, when my parents would drive on the foliage-filled backroads to get to the highway, would be some of my greatest memories once the season had passed once again. I looked forward to that trip like it was Christmas Eve, back then. I was once asked, if I could go back to any public place from my childhood and see it exactly as it was back then, what would it be, and I didn't hesitate to immediately answer, "Party City, at Halloween."
It's been strange for me to see what Party City has become, or, I suppose, unbecome, in my adult life. While I've known for quite awhile now that no one is likely visiting Party City and holding it in as high regard as I once did, it's still very sad to know that there's never a chance of that happening again. And, although my childhood store has been so heavily remodeled that it looks like a different establishment altogether, I will most definitely miss going there during Halloween season and thinking about all those old times, knowing that I was standing on the very ground that helped shape me as the spooky soul that I am today. Party City was a piece of me, and I'm sad to see it go.
I leave you with Angry Andy, a favorite find of mine from Party City this past season:
Stay spooky, my friends.
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