Holiday Merchandise Top Sellers at Party Stores

Whatever the holiday, it’s time to party. At party stores, holiday merchandise is a strong seller for multiple seasons and multiple reasons.

From St. Patrick’s Day to Easter and for so many other holidays throughout the year, the desire to celebrate is going strong.

At Parties to Go, located in Eugene, Ore., Event Consultant Shannon Kilduff reported that the shop’s best-selling merchandise for St. Patrick’s Day is a little different than that for other holidays. “I think it is more of a last-minute holiday to have people over for a small party or that people want items to take to a party. We sell a lot of green napkins and other small paper goods, necklaces with shot glass cups, buttons that say ‘I am Irish today,’ those kinds of small items. Overall, I think St. Patrick’s Day specifically has more wearable components to it, whether it’s a fun tie or an Irish cap, those are the kinds of things we sell a lot of.”

For Easter, when lunch gatherings predominate, Kilduff sees more “buffet party scenarios. We sell a lot of plastic eggs to fill with treats, Easter basket small stuffers for kids, as well as napkins, table covers, and that type of thing.” The store receives a great deal of business for other holidays as well. According to Kilduff, “We are an all-encompassing party and event rental store, we are also the only solitary party store in our area. So, we try to cover all the bases. We follow trends to some degree, but really we are working with the basics. We don’t always carry licensed character supplies, but we will have more general unicorns and dinosaurs for kids parties for example, versus say Cinderella or Mickey Mouse. When we support a party with a licensed theme, we help with color coordina-

“For St. Patrick’s Day its green and gold balloons; for Easter, we sell many paper goods for table settings in pink, yellow, lime green, and purple, as well as balloons, plastic eggs, and Easter grass.” tion, versus specific licensed products.” For Christmas, which is a big holiday for the family-run store, she says shoppers will come in both for rentals of tables and chairs and for “holiday-themed napkins, basic decorations like banners and table covers, and other tabletop centerpieces rather than huge décor pieces. We do a lot of balloons year ‘round and Christmas is no exception to that. I’d say balloons are 80% of our business.”

- Nicole Diaz, All about Fun, Lakewood, Calif.

To sell more special occasion merchandise, the store rotates merchandise seasonally, and features big display placement for the holidays. “We theme the displays to a specific holiday or holiday color. We do carry a lot of solid color supplies all year and we add those as appropriate to our seasonal displays. We also rely a lot on Instagram and Facebook to promote what we carry.”

In Seattle, Wash., John Gallant , co-owner of The Red Balloon party store, described his top-selling mer-