Helium Prices Flying High

If you’ve purchased any helium balloons lately you may have noticed that prices are going up. In fact they are going up and up and up! Helium is a byproduct of natural gas and as production of natural gas goes down, so does our supply of helium. The National Helium Reserve in Texas keeps a supply on hand because it it so important to the medical industry for MRI machines, computer chip manufacturing and defense. That has meant limits for uses such as balloons over the past few years. “We have seen the price of helium go up 90% over the past three years,” says Karen Gabriel of Party America in Reno. And so they have adjusted. “We use a lot of air-filled balloons now,” she says showing us the creations made of air-filled balloons tied together with just one helium balloon on top.”We make our center pieces with air filled and we even bunch up balloons and hang them instead of floating them. Sometimes you just have to be creative.” Gabriel says she’s never turned anyone away but because her supplies are limited she limits the amount of helium her customers can buy. “I’ve had to tell people I can only fill up three with helium. The others can be air filled. But I have to make our supplies last. Because we never know when our next shipment will be.”

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