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Party City declares bankruptcy, closing 700 stores, including 18 in Va.

Party City filed for bankruptcy Saturday and said it would “commence a wind down of its retail and wholesale operations and going out of business sales at its approximately 700 stores nationwide,” including 18 stores in Virginia.

The company just came out of bankruptcy in September, after bringing on a new CEO, Barry Litwin, in August. Party City Holdco, the retail chain’s holding company, was able to cancel about $1 billion in debt through the restructuring, according to Saturday’s announcement.

Word of Party City’s plans to shutter all of its stores came out Friday, when Litwin told corporate employees that they would soon be closing down all of the retailer’s 700-some party supply stores across the country, and that Friday would be corporate staffers’ final day of employment, according to a CNN report.

That means 18 Party City stores in Virginia will close soon, after about 40 years in business. However, there is a silver lining for employees of two stores in the Richmond area that will remain open because they are independently owned by a franchisee.

Steve Fram, the owner of two stores on West Broad Street in Henrico County and Stonehenge Village in Chesterfield County, said Monday that his stores will remain open and are not involved in the corporate shutdown. His two stores are among 29 franchise Party City stores across the country that are run independently and the only two independent franchisees in Virginia, he said.

Nonetheless, Fram said he’s fielded lots of phone calls, texts and questions about his stores’ status from his 40 employees and customers. “Everyone’s asking questions, ‘What’s going on?'” he said. “I found out about this Thursday morning, [and] I still haven’t received any information from corporate.”

The primary change will be to the stores’ point-of-service system, which is run through the Party City company, and the 29 franchise stores are working together on an independent procurement group to purchase items sold in their stores. “For the time being, we’ll be under the Party City name,” said Fram, who’s owned his stores for about 30 years.

CNN reported that some store employees received letters that the company planned to close stores Feb. 28, 2025, at which point their staffs would be terminated. Employees will not receive severance pay, and their benefits will end as the company goes out of business, Litwin said in a video call with corporate employees Friday, according to CNN.

Litwin joined the New Jersey-headquartered company as president and CEO only four months ago, and Party City exited bankruptcy in September, having declared bankruptcy in January 2023 and canceling nearly $1 billion in debt. According to CNN, the company, which was founded in 1986, still had more than $800 million in debt late this year, which earnings couldn’t overcome.

“I am excited to join Party City at a pivotal time as we reposition the business for a stronger future,” Litwin said in a statement in August announcing his hiring. “Party City is a leader in party goods and supplies, and I see many opportunities to strengthen our financial performance and build a leading end-to-end celebration experience for consumers. I look forward to working closely with our team members, the leadership team, and the board of directors to create value for all our stakeholders.”

Party City is the nation’s largest party supply store, but the combination of the pandemic, rising costs and a helium shortage all hurt its business, CNN reported.

There are 20 Party City stores in Northern Virginia, the Richmond area, Hampton Roads, Lynchburg, Roanoke and Winchester.

Boones Mill store plays Trump card

The red, white and blue Trump Town sign hanging high upon a former Boones Mill church is as prominent as a sign can be without being lit by neon. But in case drivers passing through town somehow miss it, there’s also a 15-foot cutout of a smiling Donald J. Trump leaning up against the building, which once was home to Boones Mill Christian Church and, later, Freemasons before transforming in 2020 into a retail store packed with merchandise celebrating the 45th president.

It’s a spectacle so grand, locals bring their out-of-town friends and relatives, brags Trump Town owner Donald “Whitey” Taylor. On a Friday in August, Susan Whitaker of Rocky Mount and her friend Louie Carbaugh, who was visiting from California, came to marvel at the shop at U.S. 220 and Bethlehem Road. “I’ve never seen a Trump store around L.A.,” Carbaugh says. 

Boones Mill Town Manager B.T. Fitzpatrick doesn’t believe Trump Town has made a significant impact on tourism in the area. “It’s pretty much been the same, other than the fact that some people just come by just to see it,” he says.

However, there have been some complaints about the dozens of Trump signs found on the lawn of  Trump Town. Not long after the Trump-themed store opened, town officials sent Taylor a letter noting that he was violating the town’s sign ordinance.

“We have not taken any code enforcement action on [Taylor] because, and this is where it gets kind of complex, his signs are his merchandise,” explains Fitzpatrick. “So, if I make him take all his signs down and put them inside his building, then I have to go to all the other businesses that have outdoor merchandise and tell them to do the same thing.”

Taylor, 74, also owns Franklin County Speedway, where he built a reputation for boosting racing attendance by staging pig races, mud wrestling matches and wet T-shirt contests. To increase foot traffic at Trump Town, Taylor set up a pen outside the store for three donkeys (dubbed Kamala, Hillary and Pelosi) but later rehomed them after deciding the smell might drive away customers.

Even without burros, business is good, says Taylor, who won’t disclose revenue. “I’m eating really good out of this,” he says. “I eat steak, even though … [the price is] so high with Biden in office.” 

Trump Town’s four part-time employees have sold dozens of pairs of $199 gold Trump sneakers, but hats and flags remain the store’s bread-and-butter, notes Taylor, who says the store saw between 60 to 90 customers an hour immediately following the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump. 

A proud attendee of more than 50 Trump rallies, Taylor claims to have spoken with the former president on three occasions.

Trump, Taylor tells customers, sent his helicopter pilot to scope the store, but the U.S. Secret Service vetoed the visit. (Asked for comment, a Secret Service spokesperson states that the agency “has no record of a request for former President Trump to visit Boones Mill.”)

Regardless of the presidential election’s outcome, Taylor, who is currently running for mayor in Boones Mill, thinks demand for Make America Great Again ballcaps won’t be diminishing anytime soon.

“This store will still sell merchandise 20 years from now,” he says.