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Party City will close 45 stores thanks to global helium shortage.
National party supply chain Party City will close 45 stores this year as the company seeks to support stronger performing stores in the wake of global helium shortage. In a press release issued along with the first quarter earnings report Thursday, CEO James Harrison said the shortage impacted revenues in late 2018 and that continued into 2019, resulting in the decision to close nearly four dozen locations.

Party City currently operates 870 locations across the U.S. and Canada with more than two dozen in Michigan. A list of which stores will be closing was not provided by the company
https://www.mlive.com/news/2019/05/part ... rtage.html
whats a person going to do without party Ballons that are filled with gas .
guess we will all be Blowing Hot Air

I remember reading about Helium shortages being a problem as long as 10 years ago.

Ironically, in the 1930s, the United States was the sole source of the world's helium, which we refused to sell to the Germans, and thus why German dirigibles (like the Hindenburg) used flammable hydrogen instead.

The Texas reserves are being depleted, and the Middle East is the only other major source.

You can extract it from natural gas, but it's an expensive process. And there's high demand because helium is used in aerospace and to cool super conductors like in MRI machines.

Im sorry but that reads like an Onion article. But yes I remember hearing about the shortages too.... but to close a store because of just Helium? They sell other stuff too.

It makes some sense. You ever hang out in those stores? I've seen bunches of people, that all they order from them is balloons, ready to be picked up on the day of their event. They'll be busy on major holidays and Halloween but on regular days, the one by me is just full of people waiting on balloons to be filled.

Has the price of Helium filled balloons gone up so much due to the shortages that the price is now too high to buy them? Like back in the 2000 when gas hit 4.50 and nobody was on the roads.

I'd have to ask the wife. I don't do the purchasing of balloons. That's her area. lol

Yeah, I remember reading an article about ten or so years ago about the fact that scientists are freaking out due to the fact that we are using helium which is a very limited resource for balloons. Once it is used up, we have to work very hard for it. In a few hundred years, helium will be worth more than almost any element.

Just listened to the Marketplace podcast and they discussed this. A tank of helium went from $80 to $280.

Because it's getting so expensive, they're actually pushing decorative air-filled balloons as an alternative, and they're becoming very popular. A lot of high ceiling venues don't even allow helium balloons anymore because they don't want their employees to gather them off the ceiling.

Balloon decorations without helium:
https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... oDBi5scCzM

Those work too. Just as decorative and festive.