Scary Season for Party City

With Halloween just around the corner we looked at Party City to see how sales performed leading up to this year’s festivities.

While year-over-year sales growth briefly returned to positive levels following the spring’s mandatory store closures, the trend turned sharply negative heading into the September-October buildup to Halloween this year.

In the lower bar chart we see panel sales typically peak around Halloween. This year’s lead up to the holiday looks weak vs. 2019, which in turn was weak vs. 2018. Also apparent is the reduced share of sales attributed to Halloween City’s temporary stores compared to prior years, likely part of the company’s broader store closures.

With only a few more days of sales yet to be captured, the (data) signs so far don’t bode well for Party City this All Hallows’ Eve.