As the country’s 250th anniversary approaches, fireworks distributors are expecting to see a boom in sales like never before.
Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnic Association, told The Eagle they’re estimating this year’s fireworks sales will be between $3.5 and $4 billion — setting an industry record.
That would mark a 19% to 35% increase from last year’s record of $2.95 billion.
“Consumer sales will be up because we expect a lot of first-time users, just because it’s this once in a generation milestone event, and professional displays nationwide are all being planned to be bigger, bolder, more elaborate than ever before,” Heckman said.
Local distributors are hoping to capitalize on the excitement too.
Big Blast Fireworks started 40 years ago in Bixby. The Oklahoma fireworks chain now has 10 locations, including one in Tulsa. Owner Melissa Torkleson said each of their stores is seeing anywhere from a 15% to 30% increase in sales.
“We’re kind of scrambling right now to try to get some more product in,” she told The Eagle.
For the past six years, Torkleson would import two 40-foot-high cube containers with 800-1,100 cases of fireworks.
This year, she ordered a third container to keep up with the demand. Had she not anticipated a higher turnout in sales, she said Big Blast likely wouldn’t have any product to sell in the days leading up to the Fourth of July.
Sales are also tracking higher due to the holiday falling on a Saturday, when people have more time to celebrate, Torkleson said.
But what really caught everyone by surprise was the recent legalization of bottle rockets in Oklahoma.
“Bottle rockets wasn’t on anybody’s radar, because they’re illegal in the state of Oklahoma up until two weeks ago,” she said. “And so everybody’s scrambling last minute to try to get bottle rockets from outside sources, like in Missouri or Arkansas.”
The possession, sale or manufacturing of fireworks is still illegal within Tulsa city limits. Still, those limitations haven’t slowed momentum.
“We haven’t seen (sales like) this since COVID. The year COVID hit, my two indoor stores literally sold down to a one 8-foot table of product,” Torkleson said.
Two months into the pandemic shutdown, backyard consumer fireworks sales more than doubled, while professional displays lost 90% in revenue, Heckman said.
After surviving that, a bottle rockets ban and the impact of tariffs on fireworks importing in the last year, Torkleson said the industry continues to show it can adapt. She expects 2027 to be the year sales level out.
Ismael Lele is a Report for America corps member and writes about business in Tulsa for The Oklahoma Eagle. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting this link.
