Hi Everyone!
After big celebrations like the 4th of July in the U.S., what happens to all the unsold fireworks?
Are they just stored somewhere until the next celebration or rendered harmless and disposed of?
kitemaker_chuck
Tennessee has year-round fireworks stores, usually situated for easy access from the interstates. Disposing of unsold stock from fireworks tents is up to the owners.
They get stored in the same warehouse where they keep the candy corn.
Yep, here in WI we have year-round stores too.
Or, they could just make it 6-for-1 instead of 3-for-1 to get rid of any overstock. 
It appears that many fireworks stands operate on consignment, so the unsold portion is returned to the distributor. Since fireworks are used at times other than July 4, presumably the the excess inventory is sold through the year round sales channels in the coming months.
The Indian fireworks stands in Washington state usually have “Fire Sales” the few days after the 4th in an effort to get rid of unsold merchandise. That’s when we usually go shopping for the following year. I can get $500 worth of mortars and rockets for less than $200.
…and the Christmas fruitcake?
Why would you think that this is any different than any other unsold merchandise?
Stores of all types have ‘seasons’, and goods that sell at that time of year. And then when the season passes, those same goods sell rarely if at all. For example, here in Minnesota, down parkas and ice skates sell fine in November, but by February they don’t sell any more. Halloween costumes & decorations sell in late September & all thru October, but by November 1st they are dead merchandise.
Stores will do with fireworks the same as they always do with ‘seasonal’ merchandise:[ul]
[li]Have a big ‘close-out’ sale.[/li][li]send them back to the supplier for credit.[/li][li]store them in their own warehouse until next year.[/li][li](for chains) ship them to stores in other parts of the country where the ‘season’ is still going. (For example, in Minnesota, swimsuits don’t sell after July. But in Florida or Texas, they sell year-round.)[/li][/ul]
Of course! That’s why candy corn rockets are such a bargain. 
I was just thinking that fireworks (as explosives) by their very nature (unlike Halloween costumes and decorations) would require some special consideration as to their handling and storage.
Isn’t black power (and other fireworks powder – is there a better generic word?) hygroscopic? I’d hate to have to store it for a year unless I lived in a really, really dry, non-humid place. I remember my uncle, who used to pack his own bullets, religiously used the dehumidifier in his otherwise unfurnished basement workshop.
That’s why they have the sales. It’s a bitch to store, and if you don’t do it properly, the munitions fail to perform and you lose customers.
If you don’t do it properly, the State Fire Marshall, and representatives of the Department of Homeland Security have your ass for breakfast.
Rules governing storage of even class C (common) fireworks vary from state to state.
In Washington:
Illinois wants the exterior walls of your storage site to have “two-hour fire resistive construction.”
What with the events of 9/11, Homeland Security wants to make sure terrorists don’t nab your stored firecrackers too.
CIA international arms sales.