New Year’s Eve Shoots Up Firework Sales

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The frigid temps aren’t freezing firework sales or stopping customers from going out and buying them this New Year’s Eve.

New Year’s Eve is one of the busiest days for firework stores, especially for Orbit Fireworks on Highway 45 in Columbus.

“Over here on Highway 45, we have the Airbase, but you know, and all of these over here, so we’re pretty fortunate about that and I don’t know, people around, people from Caledonia, and over that way come this way,” says store manager, Jackie Gosa.

Store workers say more than 100 customers will walk through these doors on New Year’s Eve.

“It’s a big number. They spend a lot of money on this, and you know, it’s a good thing. It only happens twice a year, so they pretty much splurge on it when they come in here,” says store worker, Mitchell Gosa.

The super cold weather isn’t stopping people from splurging on this holiday tradition.

“A hundred, two-hundred dollars, maybe, you know, on today, not usually,” says Jackie Gosa.

“We’ll probably grab one of these and probably two, I don’t know, and maybe a couple of rockets,” says customer, Shuntavis Doss.

Doss is one of those customers who is not letting the frigid temps stop him from ringing in the New Year with fireworks.

“The family will come out, you know. Once you get started, and everybody is bundled up around each other, it will warm up.”

“We sell a lot of Black Cats,” says Mitchell Gosa.

And a lot of smoke bombs, which are Abigail Brock’s favorite.

“Whenever you light them, and you throw them on the ground, it will bring a lot of smoke up from them.”

Rockets, sparklers, and all of these fireworks on these shelves will bring in several thousand dollars worth of sales for the store, just on New Year’s Eve, and this customer knows exactly why.

“I pop fireworks just to make it, well, it seems like it just lightens up our New Year’s, makes it better, makes the world come more together. Look in the sky and see God. Just make the world look more lit up,” says Ricshod Hill.

Orbit Fireworks encourages everyone to be safe and cautious when using fireworks.

They also say to make sure you have a flat surface to shoot fireworks on and to shoot them away from the trees.