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Mitch Modell looks to buy Party City, Big Lots

Modell’s founder to submit term sheets this week

Mitch Modell Aims to Buy Retailers Party City and Big Lots
Mitch Modell (Getty, Google Maps)

Mitch Modell wants to keep the party going. 

The Modell’s founder told The Real Deal he plans to submit a term sheet to buy the distressed retailer Party City by the end of the week. Modell said he also will submit one by Friday to buy Big Lots Stores, which, like Party City, was reported last week to be shuttering all of its stores.

Modell has yet to contact either company or a lawyer about his plans, but laid out his expectation to revive the two flailing brands in a phone interview.

“We’re gonna get the fucking deal,” Modell predicted.

Modell was joined on the call by Demos Parneros, former CEO of Barnes & Noble, and Larry Meyer, former CFO of Forever 21, whom Modell wants to be chief executive and chief financial officer, respectively, of the new venture. Meyer would also be executive vice president, Modell said.

He said he expects to have financing in place by the end of the week, but declined to specify the source.

Party City and Big Lots both filed for bankruptcy this year.

Party City informed its 12,000 employees last week that it will wind down its operations by February. The company has roughly 700 stores.

Big Lots plans to close its remaining roughly 970 stores as part of a going-out-of-business sale, according to a press release last week. The discount retailer has closed about 400 stores this year.

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The company had been looking for a buyer and still hopes to find one, Big Lots CEO Bruce Thorn said in the release.

Modell, who shuttered his eponymous, 141-store sporting goods chain in 2020, says he will be the struggling retail stores’ white knight.

“We want to save every job in the 1,600 stores,” Modell said, referring to the combined location count of the two companies.

Modell plans to keep both brands — he said he could not get the rights to the Modell’s brand — but would have both focus on selling apparel and sporting goods. The Big Lots brand would also include footwear — priced at $20 — and produce, and would stop carrying furniture, recliners, desks, chairs, plants, Christmas trees and electric appliances over $10.

Modell said he wants to price most items in the stores at $10 or under, which he said he will do by sourcing “direct from the factory” and “right from the farms.”

“It’s gonna be all closeouts, all special deals on prices from liquidators they’ve never seen before,” Modell said. “It’s going to be a treasure hunt on steroids.”

He said he has “75 warehouses with goods ready to ship” and that he wants to get a prototype store up by mid-January.

“Everyone — all the lenders, all the creditors, all the bankers, all the investors — who were saying, ‘Is this guy going to be able to pull it off?’ — they’re going to see what a store looks like and the excitement it brings,” he said.

Party City and Big Lots did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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