Party City of Oceanside

Last minute, I needed a Halloween costume. I called and asked if they had any type of animal ears to quickly put a costume together. They said they had many animal ears. So I drove 20 minutes to get them and arrived to find empty shelves. I was extremely unhappy and did not have a costume.

I’m not usually a fan of party city. I find their lines are usually unnecessarily long largely due to their woefully outdated POS system. However, this Party City has very friendly and efficient employees. The women at the balloon counter were fantastic. And my receipt was emailed to me. Maybe the chain is improving, regardless I highly recommend this location.

It is a few days away from Halloween so all I wanted was to carve a pumpkin. I had everything I needed except the handy dandy carving kit. I had gotten one a few years back but as I pulled it out of the junk drawer, I discovered it was all bent and twisted.
The search was on. I went to literally, six stores this evening in search of the tools I needed. Then I thought, Party City must have it. It was on the verge of 8:00PM and I figured the store would be closed. I tried anyway. To my surprise, the lot was packed! Cool beans! I raced up to the front doors expecting an employee to be standing there saying «we’re closed.» Nope… place was full of customers! I saw that the hours were extended to 10:00PM because of Halloween.
The place was a madhouse… lots of kids running around demanding a certain costume. Parents looking like they wanted to rip their hair out. All I needed was a carving kit. I went up and down the many aisles, dodging kids, in search of an employee. Finally I came upon a young lady with a name tag, and I asked if she could show me where the carving kits were. She looked at me and muttered, «I don’t know» and told me to «ask someone up front.» She pointed me toward the register area. Really? The line was crazy. I was in a rush and did not feel like waiting on line just to ask where something was.
Instead, I wandered the store and finally found what I was looking for. By the time I got to the checkout, the line had died down. The kit I picked was cool and only $ 6.99.
Not a great experience but it is a cool store anyway…