After nearly 50 years, a popular party store is preparing for one last celebration: the owner’s retirement.

For decades, the Victoria Party Store on Victoria Street in Kitchener has been providing decorations, table rentals and Halloween costumes to generations of residents in Waterloo Region.

Over the next few weeks, the store will be emptied of its streamers, helium tanks and nurse costumes, making way for a new walk-in clinic with real nurses.

For Bina and Ashok Patel, who have owned the store for the last two decades, shutting the doors was not an easy decision.

“It’s just time to say goodbye,” said Bina. “It’s not easy for us to take this. It’s hurting because this is like my baby. You know, I raised this place.”

When the couple took over from the previous owner in the early 2000

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