Party City, one of the country’s leading suppliers of colorful balloons, disposable tablecloths and small signs declaring “Oh, Kale Yeah!,” announced recently that it would shutter 45 of its 870 stores in 2019. Across the internet, many said it was because of a shortage of helium.

A spokeswoman for Party City said that was a big misunderstanding. Yes, some locations have been struggling to meet helium demand. And yes, the company’s chief executive, James M. Harrison, issued a statement telling shareholders that the company had just signed a deal with a new helium supplier. But Party City closes some locations every year to invest more in its most profitable locations, she emphasized. The fact that it is closing more stores than usual in 2019 has nothing to do with helium, the company says.

And yet the question remains: What happened to the helium? It’s supposed to be one of the most prevalent elements in the universe. Calls to Party City stores found that a location in Lee’s Summit, Mo., has been out of helium on and off since October; a store in Overland Park, Kan., has been out of helium for over a week; and a store in San Francisco has been running low for months.

What exactly is going on here? Here are some answers:

Is there actually a global helium shortage?

Yes indeed. And it’s much bigger than Party City.

This is the third global helium shortage in the past 14 years, said Phil Kornbluth, a consultant who has been working in the helium industry for 36 years. “We started referring to this as helium shortage 3.0,” he said.