Inside the last days of Party City
CNN
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2024, six members of Party City’s product development and sourcing teams left New Jersey for their annual trip to mainland China to meet with the company’s suppliers, who make practically everything the party store sells – from the mylar balloons at the front of the store to the aisles upon aisles of birthday, graduation and Halloween party decorations at the back.
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2024, six members of Party City’s product development and sourcing teams left New Jersey for their annual trip to mainland China to meet with the company’s suppliers, who make practically everything the party store sells – from the mylar balloons at the front of the store to the aisles upon aisles of birthday, graduation and Halloween party decorations at the back. Like every year, the trip was scheduled to last 12 days. In 2024, it lasted just two days. CNN spoke to multiple people who were sent on the trip and who requested anonymity for fear of retribution or reputational damage. They said that on Wednesday, December 4, Party City’s management advised its American team in China – who had just arrived on Monday – to catch the next available flight home. Party City hadn’t paid its vendors in full. It was about to go bankrupt again, and in just a matter of weeks, it would announce plans to liquidate its entire business. “I know you are both aware of the supplier pressure we’re facing,” a senior leader in the United States wrote in an email on December 4 to a team member visiting China. “In light of our purchase plans being re-evaluated, I raised the topic at an ELT (Executive Leadership Team) meeting this morning, and we think it’s appropriate for you to cut your trip short. To that end, feel free to change everyone’s return flights to Thursday or Friday, whichever is more convenient for you.” The team was stunned and demanded answers – which they said were not forthcoming. They left for Hong Kong Thursday and flew back to the United States the next day.
The US government has sued a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, accusing it of pushing borrowers into unaffordable loans—so customers would buy homes from the company’s manufactured housing business.
The attacker who drove a truck through Bourbon Street in New Orleans used Meta smart glasses to scout the scene ahead of New Year’s Day, according to an announcement from the FBI on Sunday.
Disney’s Hulu + Live TV service and Fubo will merge, creating one of the country’s largest pay TV providers, the companies announced Monday in a surprise deal that will potentially allow the Venu Sports streaming service to move forward.
US Steel and Nippon, whose $14.3 billion merger was blocked by President Joe Biden last week, filed a lawsuit against the US government Monday, claiming Biden’s executive order to bar the companies from combining was signed for “purely political reasons.”
President Joe Biden on Monday announced an executive action that will permanently ban future offshore oil and gas development in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a way that could be especially difficult for the incoming Trump administration to undo.
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2024, six members of Party City’s product development and sourcing teams left New Jersey for their annual trip to mainland China to meet with the company’s suppliers, who make practically everything the party store sells – from the mylar balloons at the front of the store to the aisles upon aisles of birthday, graduation and Halloween party decorations at the back.
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office this month, he faces a very different housing market than he did in his first term.
Nippon Steel, whose multibillion-dollar proposal to buy struggling US Steel was blocked by President Joe Biden last week, says it is considering taking legal action against the US government.
New York’s new toll for drivers entering the center of Manhattan debuted Sunday, meaning many people will pay $9 to access the busiest part of the Big Apple during peak hours.
United Airlines flights will have access to Elon Musk’s Starlink Wi-Fi services as early as this spring, a sign of the widening reach of the tech billionaire.
At 5 pm PT on January 5, 2024, things seemed like they were on the verge of getting better for Boeing. Minutes later, a full year’s worth of problems started with a near tragedy.