High travel costs help local fireworks vendors

After weeks of the firework stands sitting on almost every corner, it’s finally time to pack up and take the poppers and sparklers away until next year.  Several vendors anticipated a large hit with the struggling economy, but most weren’t too disappointed. 

Firework connoisseur Ben Smith sells them all: M-1000’s, Firestorms, and Powerhouses.  Anything that explodes into the air, he’s got it.  Well, he had it until this weekend. 

“We expected a hit because of the economy and gas prices, but we were pleasantly surprised, we did well,” says Smith.  Ben says his Irby St. stand sold roughly 87% of their inventory over the week.  Smith says last night was the final push that left only 15 boxes of his original 116 left to pack up.  Smith feels the main reason for the big sales was the high costs of traveling. 

“Lots of people said they would normally go out of town, but instead they bought local fireworks and stayed in town,” says Smith.  And for him, that’s a good thing.  Smith says everything sold, from the dollar sparklers all the way to the $250 packs of fireworks. 

Unless travel costs go down by next year, Ben Smith says he expects the local firework business to boom…in the right way. 

The next big push for firework sales doesn’t come until right around New Years.  Several other vendors also saw a rise in local fireworks sales around the Pee Dee.