Specialty merchandise retailers have struggled with most of the identical financial issues that mainstream retailers have confronted during the last two years.
- Millennials: the biggest greeting card patrons
- Hallmark Playing cards shops face a number of opponents
- Hallmark Playing cards retailer rely drops:
- Banner’s Hallmark information for Chapter 11 safety
- Banner’s Hallmark prime unsecured collectors:
- Hallmark retail chain operates for over 45 years
- Specialty retailer has related challenges
Among the many points have been rising labor and product prices pushed by inflation and new tariffs. Rising rates of interest have additionally reduce into earnings.
Moreover, some retailers have lease obligations that not make sense, since customers have modified their brick-and-mortar purchasing habits and buy extra merchandise on-line.
Area of interest retailers that focus on particular customers have little margin for error.
The greeting playing cards publishing business continues to wrestle as business income is predicted to drop to $5.6 billion in 2025 in comparison with $5.7 billion in 2024, IBISWorld reported.
U.S. customers purchase 6.5 billion greeting playing cards yearly, the Greeting Playing cards Affiliation informed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce CO publication, and Hallmark and American Greetings dominate gross sales, capturing about 80% of the market, CO stated.
Millennials: the biggest greeting card patrons
“The millennial generation is now the largest buyers of greeting cards from a dollar standpoint,” stated George White, founding father of Up with Paper, a pop-up greeting card firm, and previous president of Greeting Playing cards Affiliation.
“[Millenials] saved our industry,” stated White.
Hallmark Playing cards shops, based in 1910, had been as soon as frequent specialty shops, usually present in most regional malls and strip malls.
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Shoppers discovered it handy to drop right into a Hallmark retailer to pick the right birthday or big day card for pals or relations.
However with the growth of the web for the reason that Nineties, individuals started sending on-line e-cards and discovering different choices to greeting card shops.
Hallmark Playing cards shops face a number of opponents
Many supermarkets and grocery shops, in addition to big-box retailers like Walmart and Goal, carry Hallmark Playing cards of their greeting playing cards sections, which eliminates the necessity to search a Hallmark retailer.
Competitors has pressured tons of of Hallmark shops to shut in simply the final 5 years.
Hallmark Playing cards retailer rely drops:
- 2020: 2,000 shops
- 2025: 1,146 shops
The chain had about 2,000 largely independently owned shops in 2020, the Wall Road Journal reported, however by July 2025, about 1,146 Hallmark shops existed, in keeping with ScrapeHero.
Banner’s Hallmark information for Chapter 11 chapter.
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Banner’s Hallmark information for Chapter 11 safety
Financial points led iconic greeting playing cards retailer Banner’s Hallmark Gold Crown shops to file for Chapter 11 safety, in search of to reorganize its enterprise.
The Gaithersburg, Md.-based impartial Hallmark Gold Crown chain’s entity Banner’s of Abingdon LLC and 40 associates filed their petitions on Sept. 14 within the U.S. Chapter Courtroom for the District of Columbia itemizing $10 million to $50 million in property and liabilities.
The debtor’s largest unsecured collectors embody Hallmark Advertising Firm LLC, owed over $6.4 million; Crown MAC, owed over $5.3 million; and PNC Financial institution NA, owed over $3 million, in keeping with Bondoro.com.
Banner’s Hallmark prime unsecured collectors:
- Hallmark Advertising Firm LLC, owed over $6.4 million.
- Crown MAC, owed over $5.3 million.
- PNC Financial institution NA, owed over $3 million.
The petition signifies that funds might be out there to pay unsecured collectors on the conclusion of the chapter case.
Banner’s Hallmark is an impartial operator of 39 Hallmark Gold Crown shops in Virginia, in keeping with its web site, however it isn’t a franchisee or a company-owned chain.
Hallmark retail chain operates for over 45 years
The retailer, which opened for enterprise over 45 years in the past, purchases Hallmark merchandise to promote in its shops and is licensed to function below the Hallmark Gold Crown model.
Leonard Banner, president and CEO of Banner’s Hallmark, has beforehand served as a member of the Hallmark Gold Crown Advisory Board. The chain has received quite a few awards, together with the Hallmark Gold Crown Retail Excellence Award.
The debtor’s chapter legal professional was not instantly out there for remark.
Specialty retailer has related challenges
One other area of interest retailer, Ezpz, which markets oral care and feeding merchandise for youngsters of all ages, and pet bowls for canines and cats, competes with Walmart, Goal, in addition to PetSmart and Petco, for enterprise. EZPZ’s merchandise are even bought at Goal.
The corporate was launched in 2014 via crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and gives oral care merchandise like toothbrushes and feeding gadgets comparable to plates, cups, bowls, straws, utensils, and cleansing equipment for youngsters.
The corporate’s footprint is not very massive as its merchandise are bought in about 160 retail shops nationwide.
Merchandise can be bought via child registries at Goal, Amazon, Babylist, Crate & Youngsters, and Pottery Barn Youngsters. It additionally sells merchandise via Shopify.
The Parker, Colo., firm wanted to file for Chapter 11 safety on June 18 to reorganize because it struggled to generate adequate income to cowl its debt and bills.
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