Fireworks sellers outside of New York City are seeing “an exponential increase in business” as the explosives continue to rock Big Apple streets each night and cause an unprecedented amount of complaints about the fiery racket, retailers told The Post.
“We’re going through massive quantities of inventory, it’s just way bigger than anything we’ve experienced before,” said Bryan Williams, 27, who manages Phantom Fireworks’ Penndel location in Pennsylvania, about 70 miles outside of the city.
“What we’ve been seeing here in the store is an exponential increase in business then what we’re typically prepared for.”
Phantom, a massive pyrotechnics purveyor who considers themselves “America’s premiere consumer fireworks retailer,” regularly airs commercials in New York City and operates four locations close to the five boroughs that regularly sees New Yorkers, Williams said.
This past Saturday, Williams said the store saw sales comparable to their July 3 numbers from the previous year, which is “typically the absolutely biggest fireworks day for selling.”
“I think a lot of it just has to do with COVID and people being cooped up so long and with major fireworks shows being cancelled, a lot of people are opting to do their own private shows,” said Williams, who’s worked for the company for a decade.
“They’re just looking to blow off some steam after they’ve been cooped up for the last couple of months.”
For the last couple of weeks, the colorful explosives reverberating in the wee morning hours from the Bronx to Brooklyn has led to a whopping 8,967 complaints reported to the city’s 311 system from June 1 through Sunday, compared to just 28 gripes recorded the previous year.
The uptick, which coincides with the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, has led to a slew of conspiracy theories, ranging from a deliberate lack of enforcement to a targeted attack from city cops or even undercover federal officers.
It caused Mayor Bill de Blasio to announce the formation of a “task force” Tuesday comprised of NYPD Intelligence Bureau officers, FDNY Fire Marshals and officers from the Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation that’ll investigate suppliers and distributors and what’s behind the rise.
“I think the more profound issue is going to the root of the cause, cutting off the supply,” the mayor told reporters during his daily press briefing.
But Williams claimed there’s nothing suspicious about his customers and the increase in fireworks can be attributed to big sales and bored New Yorkers eager for entertainment as the city slogs toward a long awaited reopening.
“We ran a buy-one-get-two-free sale, so a lot of these first-time customers came away with a lot more product than they were expecting initially when they did come to purchase,” Williams explained.
“The types of customers and the type of people who are purchasing here, it’s your regular everyday people, there’s no suspicious bulk quantities being purchased by anyone.”