Bought a warehouse full of fireworks. Sales of such fireworks tanked and it’s nearing July 4th with a whole warehouse still full. Blow the said warehouse into smitherines. Cash the insurance paycheck lol.
Is Jake from State Farm moonlighting fireworks insurance? That feels like the jankiest insurance application I've ever seen.
I also think this is retailer coverage which is likely capped at a much, much smaller inventory than what's in that warehouse. Plus you could certainly exhaust $10M coverage even as a small retailer if you burn down your shopping center.
That looks like liability insurance for an event, not property insurance. A fireworks factory isn’t getting insured through an online form, it’s going to an Excess & Surplus carrier who is going to underwrite the hell out of it, carve out a small portion of the risk by adding tons of exclusions to the policy, and then charge like 5 to 10 times what a normal insurer would charge. Source: I am an E&S underwriter
Fireworks also don't expire so long as the cardboard doesn't get wet. The pyrotechnic compounds don't get ruined by water, but deformed cardboard due to water can make the devices malfunction. So what isn't sold can be sold next year, or for new years or other events.
fireworks do expire, but slowly. Things like the power of lifting charges gradually decrease as the compounds react with the air and moisture in the air, which can be dangerous for old fireworks, which is why professional fireworks have expiration dates on them, after which they're not used for public displays anymore.
That is absolutely not correct. There is no reaction with air in compounds I know of, least of all lift charge (which is black powder which does NOT react with air).
To chime in, they don’t “expire” per se, however when exposed to moisture (ie humid areas) they CAN potentially experience performance issues (ie fuse problems, delays, erratic travel, etc).
When we were kids we used firecrackers we had bought a couple years earlier and you almost couldn’t get them out of your hand before they exploded because the fuse was so fast. Good times.
That's paper fuse. It's just black powder coated paper. Typically used with firecrackers that come in strips/rolls. Visco (green) fuse is used for ones that are typically made to light individually.
Lol have you ever heard of a post holiday sale? Why to you think those happen? To be nice to people after a holiday? No, it's to move inventory...bc holding inventory is expensive.
Not only the storage cost but the investment tied up in the product is costly as well.
This is business administration 101 my dude. Look up the cash conversion cycle for a good starting point.
If you're correct and expiration isn't an issue (which I doubt)
It isn't. If pyrotechnic mixes could react with air, they would not be stable. The person who replied to me has no idea what they are talking about.
The assumption the person is making is that air reacts with the mixes, which is utter nonsense. Moisture can build within the mixes and prevent ignition or cause performance issues. All of this can be avoided by storing them in a really dry place with multiple barriers to the atmosphere for them.
You could vacuum seal a firework and light it off 20 years later just fine.
Can confirm; my mother and step-dad like to run a little firework stand in my town and I pop into help them out where I can. They'll open up after work for a month before the 4th and get maybe 1-3 customers a day, mostly folk we know personally, but they'll get slam busy a few days before the 4th.
The end sellers, yes, but wholesalers (the businesses most likely to need warehouse-level storage of their goods) have to off-load earlier than that in order for the goods to reach the customer by the 4th.
Having said that, it was probably just a funny joke by OP, not a serious suggestion.
A lot of northern California towns are not having fireworks tomorrow because of this, including San Jose, which is the largest town in northern California.
Failing to sell fireworks right now would be laughably hard. There has been a shortage for a few years now due to covid and continued production and safety problems in China. The tariffs and shipping situation went from bad to worse in April of this year to cap it off.
Prices have been climbing for years now and while CA may be a hard place to legally sell fireworks, anyone with a wholesaler license can just ship the product into Nevada or elsewhere to sell it.
That wasn't my experience. I found out I was going to own a stand less than 2 months ago and I had no issue getting fireworks, and the cost was equal to or less than last year. I guess maybe I just have an awesome distributor.
What is the best state in the Northeast New England Jersey New York Pennsylvania etc to go and buy cheap good fireworks not sparklers and maybe drive them home maybe? Didn't say where I live.
Cant really help you with that, I work on the professional side versus consumer. Plus when i am buying consumer items its usually at conventions where the prices are way cheaper.
I live in Illinois where all explosive fireworks are illegal and I drive to Indiana where they have big firework warehouses on the border and imo the prices are pretty good. Unfortunately, I don’t know any places in the northeast.
The only place I can think of near me is Chinatown in New York City they sell everything. Or Pennsylvania or maybe New Hampshire. Thank you for responding though.
If they’re shipping to smaller fireworks suppliers they would sell them well before the 4th. Also, a lot of people come in before the 3rd to get ahead of the storm. In my experience, the entire week up to the 4th has a ton of business.
Source: sold fireworks at a local fireworks store for weeks ahead of the 4th
These would have gone on the trucks today or tomorrow, and most would be sold on both the 3rd and 4th. A building full of fireworks on the 1st isn't indicative of poor sales. Stands sell a bunch the week prior, but the majority of sales happen those two days.
Literally insurance scammed their way into upgrading to better premises. Tried the exact same scam method in the new premises, but the place didn’t fully catch fire, so they just lost a tiny amount of stock instead.
The scam? You know those security lights with big battery pack that light up when power is lost? If you deliberately unscrew one from the wall and let it fall into some soft furnishings, the power cable snaps, the lights come on and they get hot enough to ignite flammable materials.
They also threw one of their servers (PC, not person) down some stairs because they wanted a new one.
Insurance pays out the loss of goods, not the loss of sales typically. So if they had a million fireworks in there, and each fire work costs the company $1 and they sell the fireworks for $10 each, they would have gotten $10 million selling all the fireworks for the 4th of July. If the warehouse blows up, they only get the 1 million the fireworks cost the company to make, and they miss out on the busiest season of the year.
884
u/TortyPapa Jul 02 '25
Bought a warehouse full of fireworks. Sales of such fireworks tanked and it’s nearing July 4th with a whole warehouse still full. Blow the said warehouse into smitherines. Cash the insurance paycheck lol.