Party Stores

chandise for St. Patrick’s Day as green and white balloons and shamrocks as well as greeting cards, which the 3,000-square-foot store also sells. Turning toward Easter, he said that “Easter is a big card and candy holiday, as well as being big for the smaller sorts of items people can put in baskets, plush Jellycat items are big for us. With seasonal paper goods, we concentrate on Meri Meri brand products, with pastel color tableware for Easter and that sort of thing,” he related

He noted that “What differentiates us from other party stores in the area is our balloon products. That brings a lot of people in the door.” From balloons to other items, promoting the products the store carries focuses on displays in-store and online. “We can do large displays of the products we carry in the store, and that’s reinforced with images on our website for all the major holidays, such as Christmas and Halloween which are both big for us. Pick up in the store has been very good for us in combination with online displays,” he said. “Overall, most of our promotion is done online, while within the store we do lots of big arrangements of the products we offer.”

At All about Fun in Lakewood, Calif., Owner Nicole Diaz said balloons are among her top sellers for all holidays, too. “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 chain.” She added that “Our rentals also do well for us, jumpers, chairs, heaters, things like that. For Thanksgiving this year, we have tents and most of my jumpers already reserved for rent for holiday family gatherings. They are particularly popular now that more people are outside.”

Heading east to Riverside, Calif., Angel Calles , co-manager of Kika’s Party Supply, is also new to operating this year. “For St. Patrick’s Day we had just opened up, but I see green paper goods, basic necklaces with beads, and rentals such as tables and chairs as the strongest sellers. With Easter, plastic eggs were very big in terms of sales as well as other Easter basket supplies, pastelcolored napkins, table covers, and banners that said ‘Happy Easter,’” he reported. “Our jumper rentals also got plenty of use, too.”

“Our rentals also do well for us, jumpers, chairs, heaters, things like that. For Thanksgiving this year, we have tents and most of my jumpers already reserved for rent for holiday family gatherings. They are particularly popular now that more people are outside.”

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Nicole Diaz,

All about Fun, Lakewood, Calif.

as balloons, plastic eggs, and Easter grass.”

Holiday specialty balloons inspire sales at other major holidays throughout the year as well. “Halloween is very big for us. It’s hard for me to predict beyond that, as we just opened in February of this year,” she explained. “Halloween is a big party time of year.”

The 5,000-square-foot store uses a great deal of social media to promote the store’s products. “We also do discounts for our regular, repeat customers, and seasonal displays in the store. Overall, I would have to say balloons are our biggest seller, they are simply more unique than something you can buy from a big

Halloween is so far the biggest holiday the 1,000-square-foot store has seen. “We sold balloons, party decorations, and rented canopies, chairs, tables, cotton candy machines and jumpers.” To sell more merchandise overall, for Halloween and other holidays, he says the shop promotes heavily on Instagram, and also via Yelp promotions. “Yelp does a lot of the ads for us, and we also have a call-to-action button there with 20% off perorder on deliveries.”

Party stores that are not part of a national chain are showing a trend toward offerings rentals as well as selling party items such as paper goods. Selling balloons and balloon arrangements is another big part of the party business for all holidays, including St. Patrick’s Day and Easter, at many locally-owned party stores. ❖