Springing into Sales

St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and Spring Merchandise at Party Stores

By June Allan Corrigan

Spring was not kind to party goods retailers this past year. The pandemic-induced quarantine arrived just in time to effectively squelch sales of St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and springtime merchandise at most of these stores. For this article, four retailers described what the scenario looked like in their part of the country and shared some of their coping strategies.

Hats and green-colored beads are usually good sellers around St. Patrick’s Day at Party Carousel in Tucson, Ariz. “People like to wear things because they’re more apt to go to a party or to go to a bar than to decorate their house for this holiday,” said Danita Miller, who has owned the business for 43 years. Easter is typically very quiet inside the approximately 1,500-square-foot store, although Miller does sell a variety of small toys that are suitable to tuck inside plastic Easter eggs. They’re popular items as people gear up for the usual Easter egg hunts. She has sold the plastic eggs in the past as well. This year, a lot of Party Carousel’s springtime business dried up. “The pandemic lessened all my sales. I work with businesses that had to close. I work with schools. I lost a lot of graduation sales as those events were canceled.”

To cope with the pandemic’s fallout, Miller has put a sign in her window telling customers to call her if they arrive and the store is closed. “They can get me 24 hours. My business phone goes automatically to my cell phone. And I live close enough by that I could come meet them at the store.” And people do call – in the spring she supplied shoppers with items to deck out their vehicles for car parades. Fortunately, she sells balloons and helium. In fact, pandemic times or not, she usually has appropriately hued balloons waving outside to attract custom- ers. “I decorate outside with balloons and pinatas. I sell a lot of pinatas so whatever the occasion – St. Patricks’ Day or Easter or another time of year, I’ve got the pinatas to match!” Miller also posts regularly on Facebook.

Happen by The Original Party Shop Warehouse in Hartford, Conn., around St. Patrick’s Day and you’ll see shoppers snapping up shamrock-adorned boppers and top hats. “They love to wear them to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade held in town,” said Store Manager Susan Clark As for best-selling Easter and springtime gear, paper plates and napkins top the list. “We’ll make a display of our springtime partyware in the front of the store – both solid colored and flower-patterns. The tulip pattern is one of our biggest sellers every year.” The large store also carries accessories like flower cut-outs, tissue or foam flowers and butterflies. All serve as perfect décor items for any spring-themed affair.

Speaking of spring, it wasn’t all doom and gloom at The Original Party Shop Warehouse this year, although the pandemic forced them to shut their doors for a time. “We closed for three weeks. Then we opened up for curbside for a month. Now we let five customers in the store at a time. I want to say when we opened the store back up, we did very well. The store hasn’t done that well in a couple of years!” said Clark. She attributed the surprising burst of