Two national retailers are going out of business after announcing the upcoming closure of all their stores.
Party City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Saturday, according to The United States today. The company, known for selling party supplies and costumes, said all company-owned Party City locations would close; sales of up to 50% are already underway in hundreds of stores.
A day earlier, Big Lots announcement it would also close all of its stores. CBS reports that the discount retailer revealed Thursday that its plan to sell its remaining assets to private equity firm Nexus Capital Management fell through after filing for bankruptcy (chapter 11) in September.
Big Lots’ website now says all of its stores are closing, with bankrupt sales of up to 25%. The company had 1,400 stores at the start of 2023, but already closed hundreds of locations this year, including CNY area stores in Ithaca and New Hartford.
Party City will close all 43 stores in New York state, according to USA Today, including two in the Syracuse area. Northern Lights Plaza store in Salina first announcement its closure in September, and now the Marshall’s Plaza location on Erie Boulevard East in DeWitt will also receive the ax.
The chain’s parent company, Party City Holdco Inc., had already filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in 2023 and emerged from bankruptcy nine months later with $1 billion less in debt. Party City CEO Barry Litwin reportedly immediately laid off the company’s employees on Friday, with the remainder of the company’s operations “finished” in the coming weeks.
About 700 Party City stores will close, according to Fox 7 in Austin, Texas, but a small number of franchises may remain open. None of them are located in New York State.
Big prizes said it will continue to negotiate with Nexus and explore other avenues to stay in business, but still plans to close all of its remaining 908 physical locations. The Big Lots website currently lists 49 stores in the Empire State, including upstate New York stores in Auburn, Buffalo, Cortland, Elmira, Liverpool, Niagara Falls, Oneida, Oswego, Pulaski, Rochester , Rome, Utica, Vestal and Watertown.
“We have all worked extremely hard and taken every step necessary to complete a going concern sale,” Bruce Thorn, CEO of Big Lots, said in a statement. “While we remain hopeful that we can complete an alternative going concern transaction, in order to protect the value of the Big Lots estate, we have made the difficult decision to begin the (going-concern) process.”