Stew Leonard’s CEO Stew Leonard, Jr. discusses how inflation is impacting the American consumer and reflects on Fourth of July sales on ‘The Claman Countdown.’
Americans look forward to celebrating the Fourth of July each year. Cookouts, parades, and gatherings are common, as is attending fireworks shows. Some people put on their own shows by purchasing consumer fireworks.
American consumers have been buying fireworks ahead of July 4 and spending a significant amount of money on them, according to members of the fireworks industry.
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Phantom Fireworks CEO Bruce Zoldan told FOX Business on Wednesday the “average sale is close to $400 this year” at the company’s brick-and-mortar stores.
A shopper explores Phantom Fireworks in Seabrook, NH on July 3, 2018. (Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“It varies some days between $350 and $425, but I’m rounding it off around the $400 mark,” he said.
Those sales, he said, are up about 10-15% over last year.
“We have daily data on all of our sales, and we have stores throughout the United States and seasonal stands are up throughout the United States,” he explained.
He believes the increase is due to the Fourth of July being on Friday this year and excitement around America celebrating its 250th birthday next year.
“The day the Fourth falls on is always important,” Zoldan told FOX Business.
“I believe it’s gearing up for the 250th birthday of America,” he also said. “We talk about the 249th birthday this year, but there’s certainly a lot of excitement coming up for next year with the 250th birthday, and I think people are preparing and planning and testing new items to see how their big party will be next year.”
The Phantom Fireworks sales tent in the parking lot of Colonie Center on Friday July 1, 2016 in Colonie, New York. (Michael P. Farrell/Albany Times Union via Getty Images / Getty Images)
At Phantom Fireworks, the large 500-gram repeater appears to be “increasing in demand” among consumers, Zoldan said, but noted the company doesn’t have all its data in for the year.
Americans are “still buying the regular Roman candles and parachutes and other favorite July 4 items, but they’re starting to go in the direction of the 500-gram,” according to the Phantom Fireworks CEO.
Zoldan also said people like to purchase assortments containing a variety of different fireworks “because it gives them a variety of smaller items, middle items, and the large 500-gram cakes.”
Phantom assortments can be as low as $99 and climb to $1,500, he said.
The company sells lighted items for children that “don’t have anything to do with a fuse or pyrotechnic powder” and pet safety-related products as well, and according to Zoldan, Phantom Fireworks is “seeing a lot of activity on those type items this year.”
Steve Houser, president of Red Rhino Fireworks and former president of the National Fireworks Association, similarly told FOX Business that retail sales of fireworks have been strong.
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“I’m an importer, distributor, wholesaler across the country, so I import the fireworks, and then I sell them throughout the country from multiple warehouse locations to the people that would sell to the general public, the retailers,” he explained. “What I have seen this year, and what I’m seeing right now is that sales on the retail side have been very strong.”
Houser said he has been getting a lot of customers circling back to him to buy more fireworks in what he called “comeback orders.”
“We’re doing those CPUs from 8 a.m. to 5 or 6 o’clock at night, all day long, and most of the customers that I’m seeing, well all of them coming back, are all smiling, so it sounds like the sales are very strong,” he told FOX Business.
He, like Zoldan, linked that to the Fourth of July falling on a Friday.
A group of people watch fireworks on the sky by night.
“The other thing is, the retailers that are open this year, I think, are seeing a boon in sales because there are probably, and I would say based on my experience, fewer actual retailers this year than say last year,” Houser said.
He said he has seen some “really small mom-and-pop shops” choose not to open this year because of tariff-related price increases and impacts on the variety of fireworks and instead save money by waiting to open for the 250th anniversary that will be celebrated on July 4 next year.
Houser also shared insight on what types of fireworks his customers have been seeking in their “comeback orders.”
“Overall, it’s the larger ones, because as these customers are coming back for their comeback orders, most of those orders are all centered around family packs, the family assortment trays that’ve got a whole bunch of stuff in them, or the larger singular pieces.”
They have also been looking for smaller fireworks like Roman candles and sparklers, but “by and large” the “comeback orders” are for larger products, according to Houser.
People light sparklers at Prospect Park in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., on Saturday, July 4, 2020. (Gabriela Bhaskar/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
America’s fireworks industry generated $2.2 billion in revenue from consumer fireworks over the entirety of last year, according to data from the American Pyrotechnics Association.
It has had the specter of tariffs looming over it amid the Trump administration putting levies on imports from China in recent months, prompting concerns among some consumers about possible price impacts.
China produces nearly all consumer fireworks used in the U.S.
Zoldan said Phantom Fireworks saw an uptick in early May up until Memorial day of people “buying larger orders anticipating the tariff” but “let our customers know that our prices are pretty stable from the previous year” and “will be through this year.”
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