What Happened to Party City After It Closed?

Описание: What happened to Party City after it closed? The party-supply chain filed for bankruptcy twice in 23 months, shut all of its company stores in early 2025, and in April 2026 its name came back inside more than 700 Staples stores. This Company Aftermath documentary (2026) follows the brand from a family garage to a shelf at the Staples print counter.

It starts with Amscan, a party-goods importer founded in 1947, and the first Party City store in New Jersey in 1986. Private equity owners bought the chain, added debt and took it public in 2015. Then the company that called itself one of the largest buyers of helium in the United States ran into a helium shortage, the pandemic and inflation, and filed for Chapter 11 in Houston in January 2023.

It left bankruptcy nine months later with most of its debt swapped for ownership. Fourteen months after that, it was back in court, and this time the plan was liquidation. Both collapses are told from the company's own sworn statements to the court, and the two explanations do not match. The video ends with the $20 million sale of the Party City name to New Amscan, an affiliate of Ad Populum, the group that also owns the parent of the Chia Pet, and with what the new shop-in-shops inside Staples keep and leave behind.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Two Bankruptcies
01:01 The Party Empire
02:52 Balloons And Helium
04:36 The First Bankruptcy
05:42 Fourteen Months
07:02 The Last Day
09:09 The $20 Million Sale
10:03 Inside Staples

PRIMARY SOURCES
• Party City Holdco Inc. Chapter 11 case 23-90005, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas: Declaration of David Orlofsky, Chief Restructuring Officer (Doc. 11, Jan 18, 2023)
• Party City Holdco Inc. Chapter 11 case 24-90621, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas: Declaration of Deborah Rieger-Paganis, Chief Restructuring Officer (Doc. 45, Dec 22, 2024)
• SEC filings: Party City Corp. 8-K on the Amscan merger (Sept 27, 2005); Party City Holdco IPO prospectus, 424B4 (April 2015)
• Staples and Party City press release, Business Wire (April 21, 2026)
• Reporting cited in the research notes: CNN, Retail Dive, Bloomberg, Fortune, CNBC, CTV News, NewsNation, Inside Retail, Bisnow, The Hustle and Haunted Attraction Network (2005-2026)

CREDITS (CC BY; thank you)
Music: 'Echoes of Home', 'Katabasis I', 'Wildflowers' and 'Origami' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. [www.scottbuckley.com.au](https://www.scottbuckley.com.au)
Sound effects (Freesound, CC BY): "Work in the park.wav" by dibko; "room-tone basement 3159 220811_0492.wav" by klankbeeld; "Marker 02.wav" and "Marker 04.wav" by Julian_Eftei
Photos (Wikimedia Commons unless noted): "Party City Store" by JeepersMedia (Flickr, CC BY 2.0); "Chia pet" by [1] from Berkeley, USA (CC BY 2.0); "A typical Staples office supply store 03" by Harrison Keely (CC BY 4.0); "Exterior of Party City store on the last day of operation" by Jackg98 (CC BY 4.0); "Party City store closing in Riverside Square, Chicago (March 2025)" by AlphaBeta135 (CC BY 4.0); "Toys "R" Us Store Closing 03" by Talor Berthelson (CC BY 2.0); "Michaels Arts & Crafts Store" by Mike Mozart (CC BY 2.0); "Party City, Argyle Village Shopping Center, Jacksonville" by Michael Rivera (CC BY-SA 4.0); "Canadian Tire - Canadian Owned and Operated" by Sikander Iqbal (CC BY-SA 4.0); "Spirit Halloween store in a former Rooms To Go, Altamonte Springs" by Yoshyoshyoshyosh (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Thumbnail photos (Wikimedia Commons): "A typical Staples office supply store 01" by Harrison Keely (CC BY 4.0); "Vista Palms Dollar Tree Party City Orlando FL" by G. Edward Johnson (CC BY 4.0); "Party City Retail Store - The Discount Party Super Store - Davenport - Iowa" and "Staples - The Office Superstore - Retail Store in Davenport - Iowa" by Tony Webster (CC BY 2.0); "Party City in Lancaster, Ohio going out of business" by Dan Keck (CC0). Party City and Staples names and logos are trademarks of their owners, shown to identify the subject; no endorsement.

Other material: public-domain photos by Carol M. Highsmith and WhisperToMe; CC0 photos by Dan Keck; stock footage from Pexels, Pixabay and Coverr; CC0 sounds from Freesound; court and SEC filings (public record). Short news and store-visit excerpts used for commentary and criticism: Good Morning America, ABC7, Fox Business, CBS New York, WISH-TV, KSBY News, WFRV Local 5, WSIL News 3, WUSA9, WCPO 9, Atlanta News First, Michaels Stores, ToyHaunter, Studio_CyberTV, Reis World, Vinctska, Undercover Deb, Brayden's Ceiling Fans Retail Stores Malls & More!

Figures are from the sources above. Narration voice is synthetic.