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The Paper Plus, the 40-year-old party supply store on San Pablo Avenue in West Berkeley is wrapping up its last holiday shopping season.
The go-to spot for calendars, greeting cards, gift paper, servingware, streamers, loot bags and just about anything else needed for birthday parties, memorials and everything in between, is closing on June 1, 2024. The store will have liquidation sales for different items each month beginning in January.
The reasons for the closure are many, according to Michele Schurman who owns the store with her husband, Philip.
They both have aging parents. Michele’s father is 92, and she’s taking on more responsibilities for his property management business in San Francisco. Philip’s mother is 98 and he’s her main caretaker.
The pandemic, of course, was a real blow to the business. And even as the store reopened, it became harder and harder to get inventory as several of the companies that supplied Paper Plus with their unique brand of party goods began folding.
And of course, there’s the internet, which has steadily eaten into store sales for years.
But the store has always had one internet-proof product, something that became a cornerstone of their business, and, according to Michele, “the thing that has kept us afloat” — balloons.
“The only thing you cannot buy online is a helium balloon,” she said.
They sell balloons for birthday parties, graduations, class reunions, corporate events, grand openings, weddings, baby showers, anniversaries — from single balloons on a string, to large multi-balloon structures. Paper Plus employees have even competed in international balloon art competitions. As they say on their website, “There is no party without balloons.”
But in the beginning, there were no balloons.
The store was founded in 1983 as Papyrus First Class Seconds, which sold overstock items from the paper store Papyrus which was founded by Michele’s mother-in-law, Margrit Schurman. Margrit and her husband, Marcel, started in the paper business in 1950, opening Schurman Fine Papers in Berkeley, a wholesale business that imported art cards and unique paper goods from Europe. Margrit opened Papyrus in 1973 to sell their paper products — including many that were designed by Marcel — directly to consumers.
As the Papyrus brand grew, Philip and Michele realized they needed to change their burgeoning brand’s name, and settled on Paper Plus.
Their first store was located at 1649 San Pablo Ave., a few doors down from the current location. They started buying and selling paper products from other companies and then began dabbling in party supplies like paper plates and napkins. And then Philip came up with the idea of balloons. That side of their business started slowly, but little by little took off, and really kicked into high gear when one of their employees became a certified balloon artist.
Over the course of 40 years, the Schurmans have opened, and then closed several other stores, seven in total by Michele’s count, including a store in San Francisco, a store at the Hilltop Mall in Richmond that specialized in calendars, a store in downtown Berkeley on Center Street, and a location on College Avenue called Papyrus Party. They even had a gallery on College Avenue called Papyrus Gallery.
“It’s kind of the old business model curve, you know,” she said. “At one point you’re franchising like crazy, and all of a sudden you have a cash flow [problem], and then you’re back down to the original one that you started with.”
The current location has been the only Paper Plus for the past 20 years.
The store has faced many challenges over the years. A pandemic, two recessions, moves, rampant theft, floods, changes to state and local laws. And four different helium shortages.
“The balloon of 35 years ago, which was practically a freebie, is no longer a freebie,” said Michele. “In fact, that balloon itself probably isn’t making us very much money because the market may not bear what the actual cost should be.”
Add to those challenges several life events that Michele has gone through, including the recent death of her mother and her sister, her husband’s struggle with Parkinson’s and her own health issues.
“Basically life started happening and ramping itself up and I just didn’t have anywhere to turn to start taking care of me, you know, let alone anything else,” said Michele. “I realized I just couldn’t split myself any further. And I really started to think of this idea that possibly we would close.”
When news broke about the store closing online, it was met with shock and sadness from locals. “My mom got my party supplies there, now I get them for my daughter,” one customer wrote on Nextdoor.
Berkeley residents Elizabeth Wihr and Michael Taylor have been shopping at Paper Plus for years. “When we had little kids we bought birthday party stuff,” Wihr said at the store on Tuesday. “Now we buy hand towels and stuff like that.”
“And we buy calendars each year for the family,” said Taylor, as he lifted a stack of wall calendars. “This place is unique, and I’m just sorry to see it go.”
“The staff is helpful, engaging, and full of suggestions,” said Kate Harps, another longtime customer, who lives in Point Richmond. “I see the same lovely people every visit. The store itself is almost literally bursting with celebratory stuff, things I would not have dreamed of.”
The store currently has six employees, including Joseph Nadeau who started working at Paper Plus when he was in high school and remembers visiting the store when he was a kid. “Everybody that asks us about [the store closing] is surprised and pretty sad about it,” he said.
Listen to Carrillo, Paper Plus’ balloon decorator, tell the story of when an older customer returned to the store years after the death of her grandson and asked to buy a yellow balloon, just like she used to get with the boy.
“The customers are sad,” said balloon decorator Ronny Carrillo, who has been a Paper Plus employee for 20 years. For him, the store closing is more than just a loss of a job. “This is like my house,” he said. “This is like my home.”
Michele Schurman feels the same way. She has been a part of the Berkeley community for decades, and she considers her employees and her customers part of her family.
“We’ve touched people’s lives and way more than just a party,” she said. “You’ve got births, you’ve got deaths, you’ve got illnesses, you’ve got community. So it’s not like I’m just losing a store, I’m losing connections with people.”
Paper Plus, 1629 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. Phone: 510-775-2958. Hours: Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday-Saturday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Connect via Facebook and Instagram.
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