Staples and Party City team up to create one-stop celebration shopping

Staples and Party City are betting that baby shower planning belongs in the same aisle as office supplies. Their new strategic partnership, announced April 21, put Party City inside more than 700 Staples locations nationwide and on Staples.com, with more stores planned by the end of 2026.

The pitch is simple: buy the balloons, décor, tableware, gift bags, costume accessories and favors, then finish the job with same-day print and marketing services in the same trip. That means invitations, banners, posters and yard signs can be handled alongside the party supplies, a shift that makes the baby shower feel less like a specialty event and more like a bundled retail errand.

That convenience angle is the real story. Party City has been rebuilt around fast-turn celebration shopping, with helium-inflated latex and foil balloons ready to take home and balloon pickup scheduling on Staples.com and the Staples app set to follow in the coming weeks. For hosts putting together a shower, that cuts out the usual scramble between separate merchants, delivery windows and last-minute print shops.

The partnership also marks a sharper turn in Party City’s comeback. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy again in December 2024, said it would wind down operations and shut its remaining U.S. stores by early 2025 after roughly 700 locations had already been shuttered. In February 2025, Party City’s intellectual property and related Amscan operating assets were sold to New Amscan PC, LLC, an affiliate of Ad Populum, giving the brand a new path back into brick-and-mortar retail without reopening its old standalone chain.

Ad Populum chief executive Joel Weinshanker has called Staples a natural fit for the brand’s recovery, and that logic is easy to see in the numbers and the format. Staples U.S. Retail President Marshall Warkentin said the partnership expands what customers can accomplish in one place, and the added print services give the deal a built-in reason to matter beyond balloons and plates.

The timing also shows how crowded celebration retail has become. Michaels expanded its balloons and party supplies in April 2025, while Party City has also been offering delivery through DoorDash. Together, those moves show retailers racing to win the shopper who wants speed, personalization and one-stop convenience. In that fight, the Staples-Party City tie-up turns baby shower shopping into a streamlined purchase, and that is exactly the point.