Jun. 27—Parents pushed their carts around Kovac's Fireworks as their children gazed at colorful bins full of small fireworks and bigger artillery, and unlike years past, there's no sign of product running out.
The supply chain woes of years past are not affecting fireworks vendors or their sales in St. Joseph, as the Fourth of July holiday approaches and the demand is there, according to manager Sydni Hook.
"We had that a couple of years ago when we had the shortage," she said. "And so, since then, everything has been pretty easily available. We have plenty, plenty in stock. And so, we will not run out of fireworks this year by any means."
After a busy weekend, business has stayed steady, and Hook expects another rush of customers to grab some popular last-minute supplies.
"The cakes where you just light the fuse, and it does all the work for you, artillery is always second favorite as far as the night works," she said. "And then, we have a lot of families in here, tons of stuff for kids, smoke balls, just little novelty things, tanks, trains, all that stuff."
3 Finger Fireworks Owner Jeff Leake said he believes customers are surprised to see lower prices on fireworks this year.
"So (shipping costs) are kind of normalizing a bit, and it's brought costs down, which we've been able to bring our cost down as well," he said.
Leake also said artillery shells are some of the most popular fireworks.
"It's something that takes time to do, and they can kind of set up their own shows," he said.
Some families in St. Joseph have been going big and shopped for fireworks without a budget in mind.
St. Joseph resident Olivia Murphy and her family spent around $1,100 on their most recent trip to Kovac's.
"We normally don't have anything set aside for it," she said. "We just kind of go with the flow of it, but I know last year we spent about $700-$800 on fireworks."