A friend of mine has a fireworks store near Austin. The other day, we were talking about his business and he mentioned some of the regulations he was to work with. He told me that customers are required to pick up a basket as they come into the store. When they browse, they must tell an employee what item they wish to purchase. The employee then puts the requested item(s) into the basket. The customer then carries the basket to the checkout and pays for the items. The customer cannot touch the fireworks until they are purchased. At roadside stands, the product is placed on the counter until it is paid for.
Basically, the customer is not allowed to touch the merchandise until it is paid for. My friend says that this is state law. What possible public good does this law address, or attempt to address? Why can’t the customer carry the merchandise in their bare hands to the checkout to pay for it? I asked my friend and he gave me some nonsense about the government intruding on his business. I figure, most laws have some sort of public good in mind, even if they aren’t effective in addressing it.
This PDF document appears to be the state fireworks regulations. (The stuff about the retail requirements begins on page 19.) I skimmed it but didn’t find any mention of this requirement. (Can any Texas residents confirm whether this is how retail fireworks stores work in Texas?)
I thought about shoplifting deterrent, but that doesn’t seem to pose a greater risk in fireworks than any other item. Maybe some folks shoplift fireworks more frequently than other things.
The linked regulations are from the Fire Marshall’s office and are devoted to fire prevention and safety – obviously an important issue in the fireworks trade. The bit about customers not handling the merchandise would seem to be a more administrative issue.
I don’t have any experience in this area because I absolutely hate retail fireworks. I never buy them. I like going to big, professional fireworks displays, but I am a nervous wreck around amateur fireworks. I am always convinced that someone will lose body parts. Playing with explosives, IMHO, is best left to the experts.
A WAG but maybe it’s a safety regulation. Maybe customers are not allowed to handle explosives. Once they purchase them, I guess it’s no longer considered a public issue.
That’s how I remember it being conducted whenever I was in town around the holidays, although until now I just thought it was a store policy. We’d still take them right outside and shoot roman candles directly at each other, though.
Letting customers handle fireworks in the store is a bad idea. Some idiot with a cigarette will use a butane lighter while holding fireworks. Or a kid will light a pack of fireworks on purpose. I bet insurance insists that customers can’t touch the product either.
I don’t know of any stores that handle fireworks here. We have stands just outside the city limits.
In Ontario, Canada, where I live, it is absolutely illegal to sell exploding or banging type products (i.e. “firecrackers”) unless they’re first shot up in the air a good distance.
Are firecrackers legal in any states? If so, what is the maximum allowed size? I remember, before they were banned here, the biggest we could get was about 3 or 3 and 1/2 inches long and maybe 1/2 inch diameter (we called them ‘cannons’). Loved them! What a blast!
I bought fireworks in Texas a year or two ago and visited 2 or 3 shops, which were right next to each other on the side of a road. All of them were shaped like mobile homes with the fireworks displayed along the back wall and sales people at the counter. The customers stood outside, pointing out what they wanted or wanted information about, and the salesperson brought them to you at the counter.
I have never seen fireworks sold another way. Does you friend have a proper ‘store’ with carts and or baskets and check out lanes? I’ve never seen one of those.
50 mg of flash powder. No matter what size the thing is, if it contains more than that it’s illegal.
25 grams of flash is enough to explode without being constrained. That sized pile of loose flash goes boom with just a spark, use one of the more unstable recipes and you don’t need the spark! :eek:
In Harris County, TX (where Houston is predominantly located) I believe it is illegal to sell fireworks. However, just outside county lines you will see plenty of fireworks shacks twice a year. There’s one I used to go to that’s about as tall as a two story building, with fireworks all along the inside wall. There’s a cash register/counter somewhere in the vacant middle space, and a bunch of employees standing around while customers make their selections.
I don’t remember specifically having baskets, but I guess there must have been baskets because I don’t remember using my hands to carry all the weapons-grade explosives my allowance would buy.
Your own insurance company probably has stricter requirements than any government body. They are more directly concerned, after all. I certainly have more troubles with insurance companies than government regulations in organizations I work with.
And many business people rail against ‘regulations’ without distinguishing between those from government, insurance company, or landlord.
My friend owns a store outside Austin. I’ve never been inside (as I hate those things), but I’ve driven past many times. It is a concrete pre-fab building with no windows and a roll-up door (think industrial garage). When the store is open for business (New Year’s and July), the roll-up door is open, revealing ordinary glass doors. I believe that inside, the customer picks up a handbasket, like what you would get at the supermarket, and goes about the store browsing and making selections. The merchandise is behind counters and the employees patrol around placing selected items in the customer’s basket. Customers cannot carry the merchandise in their hands, even if only getting one item.
My friend also owns several of the more typical wooden roadside stands. In those, the employee places selected merchandise on the counter and the customer picks it up after paying.
Many cities in Texas prohibit fireworks within the city limits. Some counties also band fireworks. It is not unusual to see fireworks stands just outside a city’s jurisdiction on nearly every route out of town. Police will sometimes sit on the highway across from the fireworks stands and observe a customer purchasing fireworks. If the customer leaves and turns toward the city, the police follow them and issue a ticket when they reach the city limits. Lately, Texas has had very dry summers, causing many counties to issue burn bans. These prohibit any sort of outdoor burning, including fireworks. In those cases, it really hurts fireworks business.
Must be a Texas thing, because at the stands in Nevada and North Carolina, I could push a cart through the store and shop just like a grocery store, prodding, thumping and comparing prices and sizes.
In Evanston, Wyoming (a small border town about an hour’s drive from Salt Lake City) there is a huge combo fireworks supermart/liquor warehouse called Porters that has been around since I was a kid.
It seems to mostly cater to Utah-based customers who make the drive up; in Utah, real fireworks are illegal and most beer is only 3.2%
So for many Utah sophistocates, a drive to Wyoming to get bottle rockets and malt liquor is a big weekend, and a occasion to be savoured…
Do you pay in one of those dollar bill wind machines? Must be chaos.
Also, does anyone have statistics on the relative rate of spontaneous human combustion in Texas versus the other states mentioned?
