Papyrus

Papyrus closed in January 2020 - weeks before COVID - demonstrating that the greeting card industry's collapse predated the pandemic. The stationery chain's parent, Schurman Retail Group, liquidated 254 stores when email and social media rendered physical cards increasingly obsolete. Papyrus targeted premium occasions - weddings, graduations - but those events shifted to digital announcements. The company represented the slow-motion death of paper communication, a category transformation no operational improvement could reverse.