"The freight is what's costing us," local firework retailers having to up firework prices

MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) — Celebrating this Fourth of July may cost a bit more this year. Fireworks manufacturers have upped their prices which is trickling down to local firework retailers.

However, one local firework store said sales are actually twice what it was this time, last year.

"We didn't go up like they told us to go up," Jerry Martin said.

Martin is the owner of Jerry's Fireworks. He said wholesalers give them a price list and tell them what they need to sell their fireworks for.

"The freight is what's costing us," Martin said.

Martin said it used to cost manufactures $10,000 to get containers full of fireworks to the United States. Now, he said it costs $40,000.

"We asked the wholesale house what to do you know?" Martin said. "They said you just won't have to eat it this time, the margin won't be near of what it's suppose to be, but just wait for a year and we're hoping it'll come back down."

Martin said demand is still the same and it's happening earlier than this time last year. Customers are still making their way to purchase fireworks, despite the rise of inflation.

"They had good deals so...it came out good," one customer said.

Martin had to up the price of some fireworks like bottle rockets. Wholesalers recommended selling them for $7.99, but Martin is not doing that.

They was $3.49 last year, this year they are $3.99," Martin said.

So how is Martin making a profit? He said the answer is volume.