Good luck finding fireworks. Sales are booming, but a shortage looms

Updated June 27, 2021, 7:41 a.m. ET

On July 4, some fireworks stores shut down because they ran out of products. The same could happen again this year.

Consumer demand for fireworks is near all-time highs, but logistics bottlenecks are reducing supply by around 30%, raising prices and depriving some retailers of a chance to cash in on what could have been their best year ever, according to Mike Collar, president of Winco Fireworks, one of America’s biggest importers.

Take the Pyro City store near Lone Jack, Mo. At first glance, it seems filled with dazzling, heavy fireworks boxes, some as large as toaster ovens with names like Gunfighters From Hell, Skull Crusher, and Redneck Diamonds. But there are gaps on the shelves, some obscured by empty boxes. The selection is not as wide this year, and then there is the price.

“They’re super expensive,” says Mary Daniel, 65, a local mom who has bought fireworks for the first time in years. “I wasn’t expecting it, I certainly wasn’t expecting it,” she laughs.

For example, the door-sized 100-pound assortment right in front of Daniel, called The Godfather, will cost $ 649.99 this year, up $ 100 from last year. This is typical. Retail fireworks have increased 20-25% this year and are still selling at a strong rate, according to store manager Donna Nuccio. Nuccio says she expects to run out of The Godfather and most of the rest of her inventory by July 4, in part because of last year’s “incredible” sales.

“The supply chain problems are the worst we have seen”

“They were through the roof and the store was empty last year,” Nuccio recalls. “I ran out of firecrackers in the store.”

This store is open year round and normally Nuccio would have time to restock, with sales typically declining after Independence Day. But Nuccio says last year was different.

“People were celebrating anything and everything. I had people coming over to buy fireworks for Thanksgiving. We had Diwali, we had Christmas, we had New Years,” says Nuccio.

Restocking has been complicated by a complete halt to fireworks production in China at the height of the pandemic. Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, said factories have been buzzing ever since, but there is still a shortage because shipping is so increased.

“The current supply chain problems are the worst we’ve seen,” Heckman said. “Almost all importers are in this chaotic mess right now.”

Delays in delivery break her heart

Winco Fireworks’ sprawling warehouse in Grandview, Missouri is at one end of this chaotic mess. The building is taller than two blocks, over 30 feet tall, and is nearly empty. Collar, the president of Winco, says the retail stores and the tents he supplies are clamoring for products that have not yet arrived here. He says more than 400 shipping containers filled with his fireworks are stranded in rail yards or ports, or are floating in the ocean between China and suburb of Kansas City, Missouri.

Collar says that in the past he could count on a container arriving at his warehouse within a month of being shipped. Now it takes three months and costs more than double – $ 2,100 per container. He says he can meet the extra costs, but the delivery delays are breaking his heart.

“This is the year that could have been,” says Collar. “You don’t get these opportunities very often.”

Some security advocates celebrate

Overall, Collar estimates that the U.S. fireworks industry will receive about two-thirds of what it could sell by July 4.

While this drop in supply is a drag for retailers and perhaps a disappointment for garden enthusiasts, some safety advocates are quietly celebrating.

“From our perspective, the fewer people using consumer fireworks, the better,” says Susan McKelvey of the National Fire Protection Association.

On the one hand, fireworks cause fires, about half of all reported on a typical Independence Day, McKelvey says. And they hurt people. McKelvey says fireworks-related serious injuries increased along with fireworks sales last year, jumping 57%. US emergency rooms treated about 15,600 people for these injuries last year, many of them children.

McKelvey says she hopes this year will be different. Professional fireworks are back, and since most of last year’s shows were canceled, the pros have plenty of fireworks on hand.

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