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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Is This Time to Open a Party Store? Yes, Says Owner

While the pandemic may not seem a good time to open any retail outlet – especially a party supply store when large gatherings are essentially banned – just such a shop has opened at the Commons at Calabasas shopping center. The store held its grand opening last weekend. Owner Rachel Huntington, a former Warner Bros. staffer, said the pandemic has reinforced the notion that celebrating life is more important now than ever. And her store, Bonjour Fête, can supply goods for socially distanced parties, at least until things return to normal. “We want to make it easy for people to celebrate at home and give them everything that they need to do it safely,” she said in an email to the Business Journal. “From balloons for a drive-by parade to something as simple as a fun birthday crown, we want to keep people’s spirits up.” She added high online order volumes from Calabasas indicated promising demand for party products in the area. Huntington founded Bonjour Fête, or “hello party,” in 2014 as an e-commerce operation out of her home in Montreal. After moving to the Southland, she opened her first brick-and-mortar store in Studio City in 2016 and followed up with a location at the Palisades Village shopping center in the Pacific Palisades in 2018. Palisades Village is owned by real estate developer Caruso, which also owns the Commons at Calabasas. Huntington said that while the pandemic didn’t stop her from opening, it certainly complicated the project. “The pandemic hit the week we were supposed to start construction so everything got delayed. Approvals and permits took longer than anticipated and my husband stepped in and did the cabinetry by himself with no assisting crew so that social distancing could be maintained.”

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