The party is over at Party City, once the largest supplier of balloons and other entertainment items in the United States, as the company announced Friday that it would close all of its stores, ending its nearly 40 years in business.

Barry Litwin, Party City’s CEO, told employees that the chain was immediately “ceasing operations” and that today would be their last day of work.

Employees were told they would not receive severance pay and were told their benefits would end if the company went out of business, CNN reported.

Litwin said the company’s “very best efforts have not been enough to address its financial challenges,” which included inflation, which has contributed to higher costs and weighed on consumer spending.

The abrupt end comes just four months after Litwin was named CEO of the New Jersey-based company. Party City went bankrupt in January 2023 with $1.7 billion in debt.

The bankruptcy cleared nearly $1 billion in debt and allowed most of its roughly 800 stores to remain open. But the remaining $800 million in debt proved too much to overcome. All of the company’s employees were sent home earlier this month. Employees were reportedly surprised by the move.

On the phone call with employees on Friday, Litwin reportedly apologized for the lack of communication, saying, “We recognize that the flow of communication was not consistent with our usual approach to sensitive matters such as these.”

Like many brick-and-mortar chains, Party City has been unable to adapt to the rise of e-commerce sites and pop-up concepts like Spirit Halloween, CNN said. They also had to deal with a helium shortage, a critical factor in the party balloon business.