COVID-19 shuts down beloved balloon store after 40 years in NC small town
A business that gave a community cheer and provided a colorful backdrop for UNC graduations, weddings and bar mitzvahs for 40 years has closed its doors.
Balloons & Tunes owners Sharon Collins and Pat Garavaglia announced their decision on the store’s Facebook page Wednesday night. The store stopped serving customers in person in mid-March but continued to fill orders, struggling like many other businesses around them to keep the lights on and the employees paid.
The loss of events to COVID-19 made it impossible to keep going, Garavaglia said.
“We love our little store, and we love people coming into our store, but it was the events that really kept us going,” she said. “There’s no UNC, no Duke, no N.C. Central, no Light the Night, no Race for the Cure, no bar mitzvahs, no weddings, no events, and that’s what’s really been the death knell.”
There have been a couple of offers from people who wanted to keep the store going, she said, but nothing has panned out.
“We would love to keep it open, but we would only do that if we found somebody that we thought really would do a good job,” Garavaglia said.
The coronavirus has forced many businesses to make big decisions about their future sooner than expected, Mayor Lydia Lavelle said. In Carrboro, Elmo’s Diner closed in September after 29 years, and Townsend Bertram announced in October that it would close its Carr Mill Mall store after 32 years.
“It’s really a shame,” Lavelle said. “I know the pandemic has caused a lot of folks, not just Balloons & Tunes, to rethink their businesses, their careers, their job opportunities. We’ve seen some businesses emerge, but we’ve certainly seen some just not able to survive, just based on their business model.”
An inventory clearance sale is next, and Balloons & Tunes is offering refunds to anyone who still has a gift certificate. A lot of people have turned down their refunds, Collins said.
“It’s just amazing. People have offered to do GoFundMe pages, but we’re not in a position that we want to pursue that,” she said.
From Charlotte to Carrboro to Chapel Hill
The store at 208 W. Main St. opened in 1980 after Collins and Garavaglia, who met when they were students in Charlotte, moved to Carrboro in 1979. They have since moved to Chapel Hill but still own the little house in Carrboro, which they use as extra creative space.
When they first opened, “people didn’t even think they needed a balloon or wanted a balloon,” Collins said. “Now it’s an integral part of celebrations.”
Besides the hundreds of Mylar balloons lining the walls of the store, the staff specializes in unique balloon towers, arches and even palm trees. It’s become the go-to place for party favors and supplies, greeting cards, gifts and novelty items.
“We have been overwhelmed the last couple of days with people’s comments about what our business has meant to them,” Collins said. “It’s so heartwarming, and the truth of the matter is, it’s a symbiotic relationship. We have met so many wonderful, kind, generous people through our business.”
Everybody who comes in is celebrating, cheering up someone or doing something else positive, she said. That’s made the hard work and the tough times worth it, she said.
Many longtime customers have tried to keep them afloat this year by buying balloons for friends and neighbors. Suzanne Evans bought nearly $1,000 worth of balloon bouquets this summer for her neighbors in Carrboro’s Claremont South subdivision
“It was really sweet, and I think that’s the kind of place we live, where people are trying to bolster each other to manage through all this,” Garavaglia said.
Christmas drive, community support
Balloons & Tunes has given back, too, whether it was joining other Carrboro residents and businesses to support families flooded out of their homes or through annual Christmas toy drives for foster children.
That has been “one of the most rewarding things” for her over the last 35 years, Collins said, noting that this year’s Christmas toy drive just started and already has over 75 sponsors.
Last year, they had over 200 sponsors, she said.
“That bodes well for this year in supporting kids in our community who I am sure feel they don’t know what’s going to happen for the holidays,” Collins said. “But we’re going to try and make Christmas dreams come true for kids, because as Pat said, kids are the most important thing.”
In 2013, a half-dozen of the store’s customers performed a flash mob to thank Collins and Garavaglia for their community support, singing and dancing in the parking lot to Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration.”
Madeline Blobe, executive director of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation, called Balloons & Tunes a “foundational business” in Carrboro. “ That breaks my heart” to hear that they’re closing, she said.
She has been a customer of the store for at least 20 years, Blobe said, whether buying stocking stuffers for her family or balloons for PTA, booster club and school events, Meals on Wheels or the Foundation.
“Everyone knows them. They’re a trusted business, not just generous, but kind and generous,” Blobe said. “They were always willing to help. Oftentimes, when I would call and order balloons, especially for Meals on Wheels, they would refuse to charge me anything.”
“They’re just a bedrock of Carrboro, and I’m really sad to see them go,” she said.
Now 68, Collins and Garavaglia said they don’t have firm plans for what’s next, but they’re trying to look on the bright side.
“I really don’t know,” Garavaglia said. “This is the first time in my life I’ve been happy to be the age I am because I have Social Security and Medicare, and that makes me so much luckier than many, many, many people.”
For Collins, there is definitely more gardening ahead. She already had more time to brighten their back yard with flowers during the business downturn, she said.
They don’t have any plans to leave, Collins said Friday as she prepared to head in to the shop for the day. They’ve got friends here that support them and share their values, she said, and a wealth of educational, cultural and political opportunities.
“I love living in Chapel Hill,” Collins said.
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 3:53 PM with the headline "COVID-19 shuts down beloved balloon store after 40 years in NC small town."
