


The trade fight and tariff threats between China and the United Stages has lit a fuse of uncertainty regarding the price tag on fireworks. But it has not discouraged Americans from celebrating the Fourth of July.
“We do a fireworks display every year,” Jared David of Lapeer said Tuesday, while looking over the selection of pyrotechnics that he and his wife Kim picked out for their fifth backyard fireworks show.
“I think they’re pretty and it’s a fun way to celebrate the holiday,” said Kim.
“We were married on the Fourth of July so it’s also our anniversary,” added Jared, who was one of many Michiganders shopping for firework shows going on in neighborhoods across the country.
That is all except Massachusetts.
Despite its role in the American Revolution and the fight for independence, it remains the only state where fireworks are illegal.
“They are 100% illegal in Massachusetts,” said Tori Newman, who served as manager of a Phantom Fireworks store in Ohio before moving to Michigan and taking on a store in Sterling Heights that was filled with shoppers Tuesday.
“I don’t get it. It’s one of our original 13 colonies,” added Newman, who said she’s a little concerned about the possibility of prices going up but not this year. “Because we’re a year round company, we plan our shipments in advance so we’re already stocked for this summer’s season.”
“The prices are going to stay the same this year but I’m not making any promises for next year,” she said, before helping a young father with two children looking to pay for their selection of pyrotechnics.
“This is our first time doing a show,” said Amanda Poniewierski of Auburn Hills, who had a cart filled with fireworks that her children picked out for their Fourth of July show. “My budget is $200.”
“We’ve got quite a few so far,” she added, before heading off to find the rockets.
No matter what happens, Newman doesn’t expect Americans to start making fireworks.
“Most of the fireworks we get are handmade,” Newman said, referring to the industry in China that supplies the world with everything from “Flash Crackers” and “Spinning Lights” to “Dead Presidents” and “Jumbo Rockets.”
In rural China, the production of fireworks is done through a system of warehouses that work like an automotive assembly line. Each warehouse in a line that snakes across acres of the region’s countryside has workers, generations of men and women who learn to create one part in the process. So, if there’s an accident in one warehouse it can be shut down, preserving the system as a whole.
“It’s a very elaborate process,” said Newman, who has not been to China but has heard the process explained by associates in the company that’s been around since 1977 and frequently visits the factories.
If the prices get too high many consumers will rely on their cities to provide the shows and even those might become too costly.
This year’s Ford Fireworks show hosted by the Parade Company and sponsored by the Ford Motor Company was fantastic. But, according to reporting by the Detroit News, Zambelli, the Pennsylvania-based company that supplies and sets up the show, said it ate higher production costs this year rather than pass them on to the show’s host and sponsor.
However, Zambelli warned that tariff “volatility” could threaten the fireworks industry’s ability to meet the high demands it expects to face next year when America celebrates its 250th birthday.
Newman concurred.
“We’re already getting ready for what is expected to be the biggest season of fireworks ever,” Newman said.