TYLER, Texas — The year 2023 is so close you can almost touch it and that means celebrating with family and friends, and maybe even popping a few fireworks.
Just as inflation blew up your bank account this year, the price for firecrackers also increased.
Two East Texas firework stores said they had to slightly raise their prices leading into the Fourth of July holiday. As of Thursday, they haven’t had to take that action again.
"We used to pay $14,000 for a container of fireworks coming from China and it went to $38,000," said Mike Adams, owner of MPA Fireworks. "Your price went from $17 a case to $43 a case for the product."
Adams said he saw his costs increase because of the delays in the Los Angeles and Long Beach, California ports earlier this year. He said thankfully this problem was solved.
"Everything is coming around and coming through up to Galveston, Texas now," Adams said. "It comes through the Panama Canal so it opened up the supply line."
Chris Harris, who owns Pappy’s Fireworks in Tyler, said his vendors increased their prices six times in the last year. Prompting him to pass a 6% increase on to his customers before Memorial Day.
"Everything costs money to ship you know, everything operates off of usually a diesel truck," Harris said. "You got to do what you got to do to stay profitable and stay competitive."
Harris said he did not have to raise prices since then and is actually seeing sales go up. His store is currently full of products and said he should have everything consumers are looking for. Harris plans to be cleaned out by Saturday at midnight.
MPA Fireworks is also saying the same thing.
"So far this year, it looks like the economy's picked back up a little bit for folks and they're spending quite a bit of money," Adams said. "They're buying all of this 500 gram stuff that did not sell this year during the Fourth of July season."
Adams mentioned that the burn bans over the summer may have slowed down Fourth of July sales as well. Even with rainy weather arriving before New Year's Day, both store owners want to remind everyone to please take safety precautions this weekend when lighting those fireworks.