Everybody loves a bargain! It was that single idea that led our founder, J. Bayard Kelly, to develop the concept of a “value price” greeting card and stationery store.

Factory Card & Party Outlet began as a division of Gallant Greetings, a greeting card distributor. Gallant kept sample greeting cards in its waiting room as a way for guests to pass time. As requests for the sample cards grew, Gallant began to charge 25 cents each, but it was hardly a formal business: the receptionist placed all funds from card sales in a cigar box.

As the word got out, people would stop by just to purchase cards. The popularity of the sample greeting cards spurred Gallant into forming a new division devoted to that product. Kelly, with nearly 30 years of industry experience, was charged with spearheading the new Factory Card & Party Outlet. Our first store opened in 1985 in a 4,000 square foot location in Buffalo Grove, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

Kelly secured a number of investors and purchased the company in 1989, with 10 stores in operation. Since going public in 1996, the company has grown to nearly 200 stores in 20 states and an online Web store. From their humble waiting-room beginning, Factory Card & Party Outlet now carries more than 3,000 designs of greeting cards.