Party City is the nation’s leading colorful balloons, disposable tablecloths and the label "Oh, kale! Lack of helium."

A Party City spokeswoman said that this is a big misunderstanding. Yes, some places have been struggling to meet helium demand. Yes, the company’s CEO James M. Harrison issued a statement telling shareholders that the company has just signed an agreement with a new helium supplier. But she emphasized that Party City will close some locations every year to invest more in its most profitable locations. The company stated that the fact that it closed more stores in 2019 than usual has nothing to do with helium.

However, the question remains: What happened to helium? It should be one of the most universal elements in the universe. After calling the Party City store, I found that a location in Lee's Summit, Missouri, had been intermittently free of helium since October; a store in Overland Park, Kansas had run out of helium for more than a week; a store in San Francisco It has been sold out for several months.

What is going on here? Here are some answers:

Indeed it is. And it is much bigger than Party City.

Phil Kornbluth, a consultant who has worked in the helium industry for 36 years, said this is the third global helium shortage in the past 14 years. "We started calling it Helium Shortage 3.0," he said.

Sandra Wilson of Overland Park Creative Carnival and Event said that to work in any enterprise that relies on helium, you need to accept the fact that the supplier will disappoint you sooner or later. Five years ago, she stopped working on balloons. "It's too unreliable," she said.

Of course, not everyone can give up helium. Because helium does not burn, it is useful for rocket engines. And because liquid helium is very cold, it is used to cool the superconducting magnets used in MRI scanners.

Joseph DiVerdi, a chemist at Colorado State University, relies on 60 liters of liquid helium every eight weeks to complete his work. "My situation is similar to walking on the edge of a dangerous cliff," he said in an interview with Physics Today last month.

In 1958, the giant balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade were filled with air instead of helium due to another shortage. Mr. Kornbluth said that although this is not a new problem, the supply of helium has been particularly low recently because the existing sources are dwindling and future projects have been delayed.

Part of the problem is that although helium is pleasant and essential, it is an afterthought for many international companies. Mr. Kornbluth said that 97% of the world's helium is produced as a "waste product" and collected when processing natural gas or producing liquefied natural gas. Its long-term sources in the United States, Qatar, and other places are currently running low. New natural gas projects are about to emerge. But these projects are large in scale, costly, and are largely affected by factors unrelated to children’s birthday parties and even wider helium demand.

Because it is very expensive and difficult to store. It is the coldest substance on earth, and a little heat can turn it into gas. Samuel Burton, site manager of the Bureau of Land Management's helium storage facility in Amarillo, Texas, said that even if stored in a cryogenic container, the liquid will slowly boil.

Mr. Burton said it was stored as a gas and gradually leaked out of most containers.

Yes, Mr. Burton’s employer has. At the Federal Reserve in Amarillo, helium is compressed on the surface and stored in layers of dolomite more than 3,000 feet underground. On top of this, a thick layer of salt holds it in place.

"Imagine a huge cake, one of which can absorb helium," he said. Not everyone can afford such a setup.

If the analyst of the party city, you mean Phi Phi O'Hara of "RuPaul's Drag Race", she thinks it will be fine (what is her qualification? An iconic route, but sometimes it goes very far. ) There are other places where you can buy balloons and cheap plastic products, she said in an interview with Instagram Messenger.

"When there is no party city to go back to, you create a new home," she said.

The party city stores in most parts of the United States will not change-except for new contracts with better-located helium suppliers to better provide helium.

The party planner, Ms. Wilson, said that if the helium fight continues, maybe this is the best. The balloon release is terrible for the environment, and the parents are over-excited by the decoration, even though "the children just want to play," she said.