Fireworks With Patriotic Names Popular

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

The Fourth of July approaches and with it the bangs, whizzes and massive booms of fireworks. Where they're legal, they're sold in strip malls and roadside tents, like a summertime version of Christmas tree stands. This year, in part because of some spectacular warehouse fires in China, firework supplies were a little short, and prices are skyrocketing. I'm sorry about that.

To learn a little bit about the fireworks business here in the U.S. and to get a preview of this year's crop, we're calling on Scott DeGross, who is the general manager of Victory Fireworks in Ellsworth, Wisconsin.

Hi. How are you?

Mr. SCOTT DeGROSS (Victory Fireworks): Hi. I'm good, thanks.

SIEGEL: What's big this year?

Mr. DeGROSS: A lot of people are looking for the biggest bang. You know, what's loud, what goes really high. We're hearing people that aren't going to travel as far for the summer, so they're still going to do their Fourth of July party, and they want to include fireworks as part of it.

SIEGEL: You mean the at-home fireworks display in your own backyard you think is bigger because people are going to save on gas that way.

Mr. DeGROSS: Anecdotally we're hearing that. Yes.

SIEGEL: Well, what kinds of things are they buying? What sorts of fireworks?

Mr. DeGROSS: Some families will come in and buy just things that they can do in their driveway that aren't going to go more than a few feet in the air or are just going to move a little bit. But the ones who are really looking for a show, red, white and blue items are very popular. Items with patriotic names are popular.

SIEGEL: What's a patriotic name?

Mr. DeGROSS: For instance, Wave the Flag. That sort of thing. You know, anything that has flag or U.S. in the name.

SIEGEL: Now, a few years ago, I read there was a fad of things that said things like Get Osama, or, you know, get him back.

Mr. DeGROSS: Yeah. There were some of those. And there still are. We try not to carry some of those, because, you know, they're inappropriate, in our view. Or they get over the top a little bit.

SIEGEL: Think they cross the line of taste here.

Mr. DeGROSS: I think so. Yeah.

SIEGEL: What's the most spectacular thing you've got in the shop this year?

Mr. DeGROSS: We have some multi-shot items, where you light one fuse and they go up in the air to a break, following a break, following a break, which a lot of people are looking for, is the loud boom.

SIEGEL: Made in China?

Mr. DeGROSS: Yes. Almost all of the items that we sell are made in China.

SIEGEL: And your costs up this year?

Mr. DeGROSS: They are. We tried to hold the line as best we could on retail, and we held it pretty close. But between the cost of materials, shipping and the declining value of the dollar, margins get tighter.

SIEGEL: Typically, does one dealer in fireworks have the same stuff as the next dealer in fireworks, or do you have something that people could only find from you?

Mr. DeGROSS: We have a line that we're the exclusive importer of. And the line is Pyro King, which is to play on the pyro part of the industry. You know, a lot of guys are - consider themselves pyrotechnicians, or backyard pyros.

SIEGEL: Right. Pyrotechnicians, as opposed to pyromaniacs. It doesn't imply that, pyro.

Mr. DeGROSS: It doesn't. But it could.

SIEGEL: Well, Mr. DeGross, thank you very much for talking with us about fireworks. Scott DeGross, who is general manager of Victory Fireworks in Ellsworth, Wisconsin.

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