A most seasonal business

By Dick Hughes  

JUNE 30, 2011 11:34 a.m. (0)

A father strolling with his two young children through Joey McCrary’s cavernous warehouse of fireworks on Wade Hampton Boulevard wanted to know.

“Under state law in South Carolina, it is legal,” McCrary replied, adding a caveat.  “You can’t do it after midnight.  They won’t get you for shooting off fireworks, but they can get you on a noise ordinance.”

It’s a question McCrary has heard before.   Now 48, he’s been selling fireworks for 27 years and has been shooting display shows as a professional for several years.

South Carolina permits sale and use of nearly all consumer or Class C fireworks, making it one of the most fireworks friendly states in the country.

Only small rockets are banned.  Cherry bombs, M80s and blockbusters have been banned by federal regulation since 1966.

“People still come in asking about M8s and cherry bombs,” said David Brock, who runs Spartanburg’s last fireworks outlet, Poor Paul’s Fireworks. “I get so tired of it.”

South Carolina’s permissive law explains the large warehouse outlets that dominate early exits along interstates out of Georgia and North Carolina, both of which limit sale and use to all but sparklers, fountains and novelty devices like snakes and glow worms.

Shelton Fireworks, an Indiana-based company, is the most prominent of the interstate sellers.  Brock and McCrary admire Shelton’s business acumen, but neither sees it as a direct competitor.

“They put up the big buildings, go to China directly and bring stuff back.  It is just a little lower quality fireworks, but they (North Carolina and Georgia customers) are paying. He’s making money, and I’d be doing the same thing if I were him,” said McCrary.

With 80 to 85 percent of all fireworks sold for July 4th and 10 percent or New Year’s, the retail fireworks business is decidedly seasonal.

“People love to celebrate their independence,” said McCrary.

Although there are a couple of U.S. makers, 90 percent of all fireworks sold in the United States come from China, he said.

McCrary, who has been in the business since he was 21, and the Brock family, which has been selling in Spartanburg for nearly 40 years, rely on their deep base of repeat customers, offer a higher quality product, keep their overhead low and work on a lower margin. They are able to stay competitive because they own their buildings.

What has sent consumer sales of fireworks soaring is availability of devices “closer to what you see at the fairgrounds” by shooting 100 feet into the air and making “the beautiful colors everybody wants,” said Brock.

McCrary and Brock said fireworks are safe, rarely malfunctioning, but need to be handled precisely according to directions and with substantial and clear distance between the charge and the shooter and spectators.

“Even a butter knife in the wrong hands can be dangerous,” said McCrary.

McCrary, whose fascination with fireworks dates to his childhood growing up on Croft Street in Greenville, has built his business into a full-time occupation with a 40,000-square foot warehouse and a professional career shooting shows.

He started a stand when he was 21, bought property on East North Street that he sold to  CVS and moved to the spot on Wade Hampton, using half for his store and leasing the other half to Habitat for Humanity.

When he turned 30, McCrary completed the rigorous state requirements to become a professional pyrotechnic to shoot the more powerful Class B fireworks that cannot be sold to consumers.

“That’s what allows me to have a huge warehouse instead of just a roadside stand,” he said. “I am here 12 months out of the year.”

McCrary said he has done shows for Mick Jagger and Aerosmith and corporations like BMW, Michelin and ScanSource.

The biggest shows he shot, he said, were for the July 4th revivals of the Redemption World Church at the Greenville downtown airport. “I did it every year, but they haven’t had it in the last few years because of the economy,” he said.

Corporate work has slowed, too.  With a major fireworks display costing $10,000 - $20,000, McCrary said, municipalities and corporations can’t justify the expense when they are laying people off.

He brought in new business by doing private party shows – weddings, birthdays, pool parties, family reunions.

“I get as much of thrill when I do a $2,000 show for a family picnic as I do for a $10,000 to $20,000 show for a corporation.  I just love fireworks.”

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