LAFAYETTE, La. (Morgan Moore/ KLFY)- Party Time Party Supplies has been independently family owned since it opened nearly 20 years ago.
This week, the business announced the party is over. Owner Bill Whitaker said the brick-and-mortar location on Pinhook Road simply can’t keep up with businesses offering online shopping.
“We found more so, in the past two to three years especially, is that a lot more people are buying items online,” said owner, Bill Whitaker. “We are seeing less and less foot traffic coming into the store. Therefore, we just could not afford to continue to pay that amount of rent when people are no longer walking in the store to buy merchandise.”
Whitaker said Party Time was lucky to avoid impacted by a nationwide helium shortage.
“We’re fortunate because many years ago, I started dealing with a Louisiana supplier,” he said. “Since they are a little it smaller and not as large as some of the national suppliers, they tend to be able to take care of smaller customers like us.”
He said some of store’s customers placed their balloon orders months ago.
Whitaker’s goal is to accommodate as many people as possible since he still has plenty of helium.
“Even though we’ve closed the store, we are still fulfilling orders this weekend that were placed weeks ago and we’re still trying to take orders and fulfill them also.”
Whitaker he said he feels that Lafayette needs someone to stay in the balloon business, so he looks forward to re-opening the store as soon as possible.
That global helium shortage did impact another national retailer, Party City.
The company said back in May that it it would shutter 45 of its 870 stores.
This year partly, because it couldn’t meet customer demand for helium-filled balloons.
Like Party Time, Party City in Lafayette was not affected as well, owners said.
