Parties are serious business

The retailer has opened a second, seasonal store for Halloween shoppers.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
BOARDMAN -- David Burda likes to joke that he's a "party animal," but the owner of Party Max in the Shops at Boardman Park plaza takes parties seriously. They're his bread and butter.
In business for 11 years, Burda's party goods shop competes with big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, and national paper and party goods chains like Hallmark.
His store has managed steady sales growth, he said, with an emphasis on customer service, competitive pricing and a wide selection of merchandise. Items like balloons and napkins imprinted with the names of local high schools give Party Max an edge, he said.
Halloween is Burda's top-selling season, bringing in 25 percent to 30 percent of his sales. May and June come in a close second with graduation parties, weddings and showers.
He wouldn't release sales figures but said Party Max profits have grown every year since he opened in 1992, reflecting a general growth in the party supply business nationally.
Burda has noticed that consumers spend money on party and holiday paper products and decorations, even when the economy is slow. A home party can be an economical alternative to a catered party in a banquet hall, he reasoned.
Biography
A Russian immigrant, Burda said he studied industrial design in college before moving to the United States in 1977 to settle in the Detroit, Mich. area. He was working for General Motors there when he met and married his wife, Diane.
The couple moved to Youngstown in 1982 when Burda was offered a job as vice president of operations at B.J. Alan Co., the fireworks company.
Ten years later, when he started thinking of going into business for himself, he settled on the party store idea because his older brother had operated a successful party goods store in Detroit. He opened Party Max at its present location in October 1992.
Burda employs between 15 and 35, with the number growing during his busy seasons. He also gets help from his wife and their two daughters, Jamie, a Boardman High School sophomore, and Rachel, a senior at Ohio University in Athens.
This year, for the first time, Burda opened a seasonal store to accommodate his expanding Halloween sales. Halloween Bazaar is at 717 Boardman-Poland Road, formerly Home Place.
With demand for Halloween merchandise growing every year, he said, the new seasonal store was the only sensible way to keep his customers happy.
In the past Burda tried to make space for Halloween merchandise by clearing out regular merchandise in his 10,000-square-foot Party Max store in the Shops at Boardman Park. At most, he could dedicate about a third of his floor space there to costumes, decorations and accessories.
"Halloween is getting bigger and bigger every year. We were so busy, you couldn't walk through the store, especially the last 10 to 15 days before Halloween," he said. "Customers were complaining."
More space
With 15,000 square feet of retail space in his seasonal store, Burda has been able to more than double his Halloween inventory.
For example, the new store has 10 large inflated Halloween figures on display, the latest in seasonal lawn decor.
Known as "air-blown" figures because they have built-in fans that keep them inflated, the figures are up to 8 feet tall and several feet in diameter. Because of space limitations, Burda could display only one last year.
The store owner said he's leased the Halloween Bazaar space for three months, so he'll be out by November.
Next year, if he can get the Home Place spot or another, equally favorable location in Boardman, he's thinking about leasing space for six months. If he did that, Burda said, he'd display Halloween merchandise first, converting it in November into a Christmas specialty store.
vinarsky@vindy.com