Fireworks "Superstores" Prove Recession Resistant

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (WUSA) -- Crowds filled every aisle at the Keystone Fireworks Superstore Thursday, as customers from at least a half-dozen states prepared to celebrate Independence Day.

At 75 miles from downtown Washington, the store south of Gettysburg off US route 15 is the closest fireworks superstore outlet to the DC area.

Business is up slightly in 2009, despite the sour economy.

"There is no recession in this business," said store manager Butch Bitner. "We get better and better every year."

Like many of its competitors, the store is within a minute of the state line, to take advantage of customers who cross from other states to purchase fireworks that are not legal at home.

The "backyard fireworks" business has doubled in the past five years, according to Julie Heckman of the Bethesda-based American Pyrotechnic Association. The industry sold at least $945 million in the U.S. last year, in part, thanks to the success of the state-line superstores.

To end the "wink and nod" crossing of state lines by customers, Heckman says the industry advocates the elimination of the mish-mash of local and state laws regulating fireworks in favor of existing federal standards.

At Keystone Fireworks, employees check ID's at the door to be sure customers are from outside Pennsylvania. Ironically, the store may not sell most of its products to residents of its own state.

But as long as customers are from somewhere else, and are taking the fireworks out of state, they may buy as much as they can afford. And many customers do just that.