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- [00:00]
Kristen Bell
Hi, I'm Kristen Bell and if you know my husband Dax, then you also know he loves shopping for a car. Selling a car, not so much.
- [00:07]
Courtney Harrell
We're really doing this, huh?
- [00:09]
Kristen Bell
Thankfully, Carvana makes it easy. Answer a few questions, put in your van or license and done. We sold ours in minutes this morning and they'll come pick it up and pay us this afternoon.
- [00:19]
Mick
Bye bye Truckee.
- [00:21]
Kristen Bell
Of course, we kept the favorite.
- [00:24]
Marcella
Hello other Truckee.
- [00:26]
Kristen Bell
Sell your car with Carvana today. Terms and conditions apply.
- [00:30]
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- [01:38]
Kristen Bell
We are not financial advisors.
- [01:40]
Natural Cycles
You should always do your own research and consult your own financial advisor before spending or investing your money. Please note that all income, financial information.
- [01:50]
Kristen Bell
And expenses in what we spend are self reported.
- [01:55]
Courtney Harrell
Tell me why you like fireworks.
- [01:58]
Marcella
I've always been a pyromaniac. I mean, I got guns, I got fireworks. Some of this stuff is just so cool and it's gotten so much better in the last 20 years. The stuff that consumers can buy today is almost as good as some of the commercial stuff was 25 years ago. I mean, there are, there's limits to, you know, how much powder can be in a firework and still be a retail consumer firework. But the effects have gotten so much better, the designs have gotten so much better, the quality has gotten better. It's just put on a heck of a show.
- [02:39]
Courtney Harrell
This is Mick. He's 67 years old and he and his wife Marcella own Mockport Fireworks, a fireworks store in Mockport, Indiana.
- [02:50]
Marcella
We've Been doing that for 26 years.
- [02:52]
Mick
Wow.
- [02:52]
Marcella
It's fun. It's hectic and it's 4,000 square foot building with conditioning and no heat in the winter. So, you know, it's, it's kind of throwback to the old days.
- [03:04]
Courtney Harrell
Today, Mick is semi retired and the fireworks store is more of a part time gig. The store is typically open mid May through July, then opens again for Labor Day and later in the year for New Year's. But with getting inventory and special orders, there's at least some work year round.
- [03:22]
Marcella
There's probably 100 people have my phone number that can call me anytime during the year. We've sold fireworks for weddings, for funerals, for birthdays, for family reunions, you know, so we're pretty equal opportunity in that regard.
- [03:38]
Courtney Harrell
In the US the consumer fireworks industry is a $2.2 billion industry. And for Mick and thousands of fireworks vendors like him, July is a crucial time of year. Mick typically does 80 to 85% of the year's business in the week leading up to the fourth of July. But the fireworks business can be unpredictable. The weather shifting, fireworks regulations, tariffs, all kinds of uncontrollable things impact fireworks sales. So if you are in the fireworks business, it's both the most fun time of year and the most stressful. Today we'll follow Mick through that critical week leading up to the 4th of July and hear whether all the stars aligned for fireworks to pay off this year.
- [04:26]
Mick
Courtney.
- [04:27]
Courtney Harrell
I'm Courtney Harrell and this is what we spend. Did you play with fireworks as a kid?
- [04:40]
Marcella
Oh, yeah, whenever you could. Running in the woods and you're having shooting bottle rockets and roaming candles at each other, that was big time. You get a chance to shoot your buddy. Come on. My family, there was four boys in my family. Mom said she should have been a nun and had four dogs. But, you know, back when I was growing up, you couldn' a lot of that stuff. You had to go to Tennessee to get your fireworks. That was always the big thing here in Kentucky and Indiana. You got to go to Tennessee to get the good stuff because you could always sell it there. Now we advertise that, you know, we have the good stuff so you don't have to drive hours to Tennessee. You know, it's right here, right now. Same stuff.
- [05:17]
Courtney Harrell
The fireworks piece of it aside, why did you want to own your own business?
- [05:22]
Marcella
Like, to feel like, you know, if we did good, we did good.
- [05:26]
Courtney Harrell
Yeah.
- [05:26]
Marcella
You know, and that's kind of what I like about being an entrepreneur. If we do good, it's because we made good decisions and, and we did good things. If we do bad, either mother nature got us or we did something dumb. So I don't have to depend on some of the things in a corporate environment. And you know, and I did that. Yeah, you know, and I understand that. But I just soon, you know, if we kick ass, it's because we did it and not somebody else.
- [05:56]
Courtney Harrell
Mick has worked a lot of jobs over the years. He worked at a shipbuilding company as a welder and a steel fitter while he was going to school. Then he had a more corporate job working in the river operation department for a barge line where he helped install computers on boats and trained captains to use them. He's also worked on a used car lot, been a computer service repair manager. And he and Marcella owned a couple subways for a while. But that job was particularly time consuming, especially with their three kids. So 26 years ago, they started looking for the next thing.
- [06:31]
Marcella
My brother Kevin and I started the fireworks business at that time, you know, we spent a lot of money on fireworks. And Mars said one, one time, I guess in 99 said, you know, you knotheads, as much money as you spend on fireworks, you ought to own a store. And that kind of, kind of got us going.
- [06:53]
Courtney Harrell
Since the fireworks business is mostly seasonal, a lot of vendors just operate out of pop up tents in the summer. But Mick and his family wanted a permanent location. And Mick says the right thing just fell into their lap. A big 4,000 square foot building with no AC or heat that they've been working out of on a handshake agreement for 26 years. And from the start, business was good. Their rent was reasonable, the shop was mostly staffed by different members of the family, and fireworks regulations in Indiana and the surrounding states worked in their favor.
- [07:29]
Marcella
You know, a lot of states restrict things. California restricts Washington, Oregon, Democrat states. You know, for what it's worth, not trying to be political, but the nanny states, you know, everything's dangerous and very restricted. And I understand, you know, the major metropolitan areas. Yeah, some of this stuff can be a problem in a large metro area. You know, you need a little bit of area, you need a yard at least.
- [07:59]
Courtney Harrell
Massachusetts is the only state that doesn't allow fireworks at all. But there are still different levels of what's allowed everywhere else in the country. In some states you can only use things like fountain fireworks that just sparkle and don't leave the ground. But in Indiana, where Mick operates, almost anything goes. And actually having more restrictive laws in states around him has Been good for business. In Kentucky, you couldn't legally buy fireworks that shoot from a tube or have a mortar until March 2011. So for the first 10 years of their business, a lot of Kentuckians who wanted the good stuff would drive to Mick's.
- [08:39]
Marcella
The market's kind of saturated up here. When we started this, my brother and I, we put a fireworks store on the last bridge between Kentucky and Indiana that did not have a fireworks store on it.
- [08:52]
Courtney Harrell
Wow. How do you set yourself apart?
- [08:55]
Marcella
Customer service, product quality. People come in, we treat everybody the way we want to be treated. We're friendly, we're knowledgeable, we get out and help folks. We get a lot of feedback. The way we treat folks, I guess, and the fact that, you know, our quality is good and our products are dependable and we're not trying to make all the money off 10 people. We'll, we'll make a little money off a thousand people.
- [09:25]
Courtney Harrell
Mick puts a lot of energy into his product quality. 99% of consumer fireworks in the US come from China, and most fireworks stores buy their fireworks from a wholesaler who buys from the factories. But Mick has partnered with a group of five other guys to cut out the middleman and work directly with a Chinese factory to make their own line of fireworks. So he has more control over the quality of the product. And not paying a wholesaler gives him more room to make a profit while still pricing things for his area.
- [09:58]
Marcella
We know our area, and it's not an affluent area. It's fairly rural and small town, not a lot of industry and things around. So, you know, I'm priced a little lower than some of the other guys in the group on a lot of things, but it's what my market is and so, you know, I, I can survive.
- [10:17]
Courtney Harrell
The fireworks operation was never a full time job for Mick or his wife. Marcela worked at a garden center, and Mick has worked on and off at gun shops over the years. He actually still picks up shifts occasionally, but now for the most part, they're retired and just supplementing with their fireworks income. About how much money do you think you make a year?
- [10:40]
Marcella
The fireworks store is more than a part time living. It's not a full time living. So, you know, my wife's on Social Security, I'm on Social Security.
- [10:48]
Courtney Harrell
Their Social Security income is about 38,000 a year between the two of them, and their expenses are low. Their house is paid off, so they don't have a mortgage. Their cars are paid off, and they're on Medicaid. So that really Just leaves them with about $2,000 a month in expenses for their utilities, phone bill, gas, groceries, wi fi and home and car insurance.
- [11:10]
Marcella
I take a small salary out of the fireworks store, but I'm able to pay my Internet, my phone bills, you know, certain things that we can expense through the businesses. So, you know, I don't have to, I don't have to bring in a hundred thousand a year. I've never done that. So, you know, I'm, I'm not going to put a figure on it. But, you know, like I said, it's. We're reasonably comfortable.
- [11:32]
Courtney Harrell
Mick isn't just being coy because they reinvest the bulk of the money they make from the store back into the store. What they take home varies, but these days the store can make anywhere from 140 to $200,000 in a given year. And Mick guesses he brings home between 5 to 10% of that.
- [11:52]
Marcella
And it depends on the year. I mean, we just had a banner year, but in 2012 we had a drought and the drought basically halved our sales.
- [12:07]
Courtney Harrell
Wow.
- [12:07]
Marcella
And so I had to borrow money and basically took about four years to recover. So during those four years, I took nothing, nothing out of the store, but I was doing other things, you know, supplementing income. My wife was working full time. You know, we got through it. That was, that was a very difficult four or five years.
- [12:30]
Courtney Harrell
What is it like to be in a business where so much of the money from that business depends on such a short period of time?
- [12:39]
Marcella
Oh, it's nerve wracking at times. There, there's no doubt about it. And when we got down to Friday, June 28, we were at a decent number for June, but I was concerned. It's like we need, we need to pull off this, this and this, you know, so there's always, you're always nervous. And we'd had a ton of rain all through June, and then after the 15th of June, we haven't had hardly any. So it's a rural area. There's farmers, there's hay, there's corn. So people have concerns with fireworks if it's too dry.
- [13:21]
Courtney Harrell
Right.
- [13:21]
Marcella
You know, burning, burning a field and things like that. So, you know, there's, there's no guarantees of what's going to happen.
- [13:30]
Courtney Harrell
Another looming complication is the tariffs. Remember, the fireworks are pretty much all coming from China. For this fourth of July, Mick was able to get almost all his inventory in before any new tariffs hit. But when Mick and I talked, there was a 30% tariff on fireworks coming from China that would impact his orders.
- [13:51]
Marcella
For next year, we're hoping. In the previous administration when they had tariffs on China, they exempted fireworks because there is no onshore fireworks industry between the government and the insurance agencies. They ran it all offshore 40 years ago. So there is no way to bring that manufacturing back here. And they are lobbying the, the administration to exempt fireworks. 30% really is a hardship and it will affect people. And next year is the 250th anniversary of, of the Declaration of Independence in our country and people are going to want to shoot and you don't really want your products going up another third in cost, which is significant, you know, so we've eaten a lot of the price increases in our store for the last three or four years since COVID eaten as much as we could. And still the prices, you know, are noticeably higher than they were a few years ago. But again, we haven't raised prices in three years. So, you know, but can't guarantee that next year.
- [15:01]
Courtney Harrell
I'm really struck listening to you talk about, like how the laws have changed and the impact of the weather that it feels like there's so much about the survival of your business that is so completely out of your control.
- [15:16]
Marcella
Yeah, that's true.
- [15:17]
Courtney Harrell
How does that feel?
- [15:19]
Marcella
You know, you can't change it. You know, you just deal with it. I don't know. I guess that makes it kind of exciting when you know that there's a lot of things you can't control. So you take care of the things that you can and you hope for the best. And, you know, I mean, I pray I go to church. You know, I know I'm not in charge of everything, so I'm not worried about it. If I run into a snag, then I have to find another way. I have to do something else. But that's okay. I like being in that position as opposed to somebody else controlling my destiny.
- [16:02]
Courtney Harrell
After the break, we'll dive in to mix week.
- [16:15]
Kristen Bell
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- [16:48]
Brian
Hey there cats and kittens. It's Brian from the commercial break. The mediocre comedy podcast where my best friend Chrissy and I attempt to make sense of the world. We talk about the absurd, the ridiculous and the stuffy no one asked for like Internet weirdos, pickup artists, and why everyone is obsessed with crystals and colonics. It's all gotta stop. The show is free, it's frequent, and it's probably not for everyone. You can go to tcbpodcast.com subscribe@YouTube.com the commercial break or check out the show wherever you listen to podcasts. We'll see you on the next commercial break. And best to you.
- [17:21]
Mick
Dear Diary, Day one Of course it's Saturday Day two that I'm recording Day one's diary. So how yesterday went? Got to work at the fireworks store 45 minutes away from home about 9:30. We were here until almost 11 last night. Lots of customers, busy day. Normally we close at 10, but when people come in the door, you know you got money, I got time. So as far as what the expenses were, we checked into the hotel for the next nine nights. That's going to cost us somewhere between six and nine hundred dollars.
- [18:05]
Courtney Harrell
Mick and his family live in a different town, a 45 minute drive from the store. So on busy weeks they stay in a hotel nearby so they don't have to commute.
- [18:15]
Mick
We had dinner. My wife went across the river to Brandenburg, Kentucky to Doc's Smoke Shack and got us about $50 worth of ribs and pulled pork and smoked sausage for dinner. Finally got out of here. Like I said, about quarter till 11 last night. Got back to the hotel, everybody's showering and getting cleaned up and I had to do the day's deposit. Our day sales were around $9,000. Got the deposit. Finally got to bed at 1am Got 19,722 steps on my Fitbit yesterday. So that's just a kind of a quick synopsis of day one. And again this is my second day that I'm recording that because it's too daggone busy yesterday. So sometime after a while I'm going to get to day two. So talk to you soon.
- [19:12]
Courtney Harrell
Total for day one, about $950. On day two, Mick and Marcella brought their granddaughter Ava to help in the store.
- [19:21]
Mick
So we were up at 7 in the morning. Late night, felt like I was a half bubble off level. Forgot my kindle at the store. Had a broken charger. Just all kinds of silly stuff. We did stop at the store. Bought flowers for our daughter Elise's birthday the next day. Spent 15 there, went to Starbucks, used a gift card for Marcella and Ava to get something. Got to the store to open at 10 and had customers waiting on us. So Mount Zion Church started cooking for the day.
- [19:56]
Courtney Harrell
Mount Zion is a small nearby church that sets up a food tent during Mick's busiest weeks to take advantage of his crowds.
- [20:03]
Mick
They sell burgers and hot dogs and fish and ribeye sandwiches to the customers. So we did have a good sales day, about 10,000. It was smaller tickets, but more customers. So. Well, it's about 12:30 and I'm going to go take a shower and see if I can't go to bed.
- [20:24]
Courtney Harrell
Total for day two, $65 for the birthday, flowers and lunch from the food tent. Day three started with a birthday brunch for Mick's daughter.
- [20:34]
Mick
Had a real nice brunch and stayed till about 10:15. Got to hang out with the grandkids too. We left there about 10:15 and it's a little over an hour back to the store, back to Maukport. So we got there about 1140 and the place was busy. Got my brother and granddaughter and a young man who's an EMT who's been in our church group, our men's club at church, who's worked with us a couple of times and he was able to come out today. So they kind of covered the store for Marcel and I. So it was great. Got really busy and it would slow down a little and get even busier and then slow down a little. So we were, we were humping until 6 o' clock before it turned out to be like one or two customers in the store. We've got customers who come in with $50 and we have customers who come in with two or three thousand dollars. We've got three and four generational families, you know, mom, dad, grandpa, great grandpa. We got moms and dads who used to be the little kid holding mom and dad's hand, now having their little kid coming through. So we have multi generational customer base. A lot of small talk to folks we know. We don't know everybody's name, but we know the faces and we know who's been there. We talk to them about their budget, what they like, what kind of space they have, what's their crowd, you know, do you want something that's going to make grandma flip over in the lawn chair? Or we want some quiet, low key, high key. So we cover it all we did about 14,000 today. Our big 500 gram finales, which is the biggest thing I could sell to a consumer and they can possess legally. Our big finales are pretty cool. It's all in house stuff. So it was a good day building towards next week. We were pretty happy with sales today. So very sweaty sitting here sharing a glass of bourbon with Marcella. And we're at the hotel now. Just finished doing the paperwork for the day, and I'm gonna go put my fat butt in the shower and get it cleaned up.
- [22:59]
Courtney Harrell
On day three, Mick paid for his Starbucks with his gift card. So his total for the day was $100 that he spent at the church's food tent. It sounds like you're really good at matching customers to the right fireworks for them.
- [23:19]
Marcella
Yeah, I know what I like. And we shoot everything. I mean, we. We play with our stuff, you know, we know what it does. You know, I've had many people over the years and still happens, you know, oh, Mick, you know, I want to do same thing we did last year. So what did we do? What'd we get? I don't know. I don't remember. I just told you how much money, and you went and filled my cart, and it was great. And I want to do the same thing. I said, okay, I need a little more information. You know, did we do mortars? Did we do finales? Was it little pieces? Was, you know, and so those are the kind of things we ask a lot of questions. And. And like with the reloadable mortars, you're putting a shell down a tube, you light that fuse, and it goes up in the air 150 or 200ft. And so I want. It's. You can get killed. Okay. If you do something dumb, you look over the tube and you lit it and then come up and hit you in the head and caves your head in your debt. So, you know, I try to ascertain people's comfort level. Have you shot these before? You know what this is? Oh, yeah.
- [24:20]
Courtney Harrell
Okay, there's the danger. Is. Is. Is a part of the piece of it.
- [24:24]
Marcella
Yeah.
- [24:25]
Courtney Harrell
What is your favorite firework this year?
- [24:29]
Marcella
Man, that's like, which one's your favorite, kid? You know, you like them all, but they're all a little different. But, you know, Psycho Circus was. Was pretty cool.
- [24:39]
Courtney Harrell
Psycho Circus is a kind of 500 gram finale, which means it has the most pyrotechnic material a consumer firework can have. In Indiana, this one is a constant barrage of red and green explosions with a flying Fish effect. So after the big burst, the colors keep wriggling off in all directions.
- [24:59]
Marcella
The road to fourth of July was pretty cool.
- [25:01]
Courtney Harrell
That one's classy. Think gold and silver eruptions that leave long clean streaks in the sky.
- [25:07]
Marcella
Too big for your britches. Was a brand new 500 this year where we actually took the effects out of four or five of the other big 500 gram finales and put them all in one. And it was bad to the bone.
- [25:21]
Courtney Harrell
Just imagine every type of firework you've ever seen all happening together for about 35 seconds.
- [25:26]
Marcella
One of the most expensive pieces in the store. 125 bucks. So it's still reasonable. But it was, it was a show. It was a show. And I didn't know at that price point how it would go this year. So I brought 20 of them in and I should have brought 60. I could have sold at least 40 more of them. So I will triple my order next year on those.
- [25:51]
Courtney Harrell
Incredible, incredible.
- [25:52]
Marcella
Oh yeah.
- [25:54]
Courtney Harrell
There is something about hearing about the experience of your store that feels like it's letting a bunch of people be kids when they're not kids anymore.
- [26:03]
Marcella
Oh yeah, yeah. Oh, definitely. You know, it's, you know, you're burning money. You know, people have said, you know, and smile and laugh and they know what they're doing.
- [26:33]
Mick
Monkport Fireworks Day 4 Monday. Got up about 6:15, went down to the hotel breakfast area, had a little breakfast, was on the road to Evansville at 6:45, got down there, picked up 14 cases of additional fireworks and was back by 9:30 to actually get the store open by 10. Of course, as I pull in, somebody pulls in behind me. So I had to make them fellas wait for about 15 minutes while I was unloading the truck. Got the store ready to open and there we go. So we stayed kind of busy till noon. Had a pretty steady afternoon. Of course, Mount Zion Church started cooking again about 1 o'. Clock. So we kicked them another hundred bucks and got some burgers and hot dogs. And I think there was a steak sandwich cooked and some other odds and ends. So things were kind of slow. At 8, we had a couple of customers and then it died. And just for knowing, when we opened 26 years ago, nobody had a credit card card. And now it's 80, 20 credit cards to cash. We have handheld scanners, so Marcella and I can actually walk out in the store and help customers and ring up things and actually run their credit card without ever having to go to the cash register. So it's been a game Changer. We used to have to have three, four, five cashiers at three cash stations. So by nine the store was dead. Mars and I back to the hotel. Got here about, about 10:30, got the deposits done, sales tax, got a shower, sipping on a little bourbon. Gonna check on the news of the day and head to bed. And I hope I'm gonna sleep until 7 in the morning. So anyway, so that's day four, Monday.
- [28:36]
Courtney Harrell
June 30th, total for day four thanks to that Starbucks gift card, $0.
- [28:47]
Mick
Day five. Got up about 7:30, went down, had breakfast, went to the bank and made the deposit, went to Starbucks and got Mars some coffee. We got Ava and went to the store. We got there about 9:40 this morning, started restocking from 11 to 12. I was on the radio, WMMG in Brandenburg on their Edgewise show, which is a local community activity affairs type of show. We spent about an hour there talking about safety, customer stories, things about the business, that kind of stuff. We've been doing that for about 15 years. There kind of an ad, but it's a lot of fun. People call in, ask questions, have comments. So it's been a lot of fun and we're still going.
- [29:39]
Courtney Harrell
Total for day five, zero dollars. Day six.
- [29:45]
Mick
I went to the bank this morning, made yesterday's deposit, which was for July 2nd. Today is July 3rd. Well, I don't even know what day it is.
- [30:00]
Courtney Harrell
Marcel is right, it's July 2nd.
- [30:02]
Mick
It all runs together when you're out of the house and on the road doing 10, 12, 14 hour days. So went to Walmart after going to the bank, bought some foaming soap because you have to have the right kind of soap. Bought some scotch for my friend David and bought some Pinot Grigio for his wife Lisa, who are coming up from Florida to work with us. Yeah, spent about a hundred bucks, got a little beer for me. We did stop at the Dollar General store on the way to the store this morning. Bought some ice calculators, spent about $10.
- [30:42]
Courtney Harrell
The calculator is to keep by the register so they can quickly add up totals and any last minute discounts when they ring up customers.
- [30:50]
Mick
We got to the store about 9:40 this morning. Today is a day of Repeat customers, about 10, 15. We had a large order, slow start again today. But you know I want my customers working so they can afford to come in and buy some fireworks. So we had some kind of regular customers call about quarter till 10 and say they were in Louisville, leaving Hooters on the way and wanted to know if we'd stay late for a little while for them. And these guys have been coming in for several years. A couple of them are farm boys. Don't know everybody's name, but we know the faces. So we waited and they finally got there about 10:30 and it was a $3,000 order that they wanted me to put together for them and I did. So as far as the day goes, we had about 62 customers. We had good sales, especially with what amounted to be about a $3,000 order after hours. At any rate, it was a good day. Tomorrow is July 3rd. Place is going to be rocking tomorrow, so I'll do my best to try to keep notes but do what I can because time is getting short. These next two days will be rock and roll time.
- [32:22]
Courtney Harrell
Total for day six, about $210 including another $100 to the food tent.
- [32:33]
Mick
Day seven, July 3rd. It's now 12:45 and I need a shower. Of course the morning started with me having to go back to the fireworks store because I dropped the deposit in the middle of the store last night and didn't know it until I got back here to the hotel, had to come back to town, went to the bank, went to Walmart, bought some calculators and powerades and bananas, spent about 40 bucks, went to Starbucks and picked up Marcella's Starbucks again like I do. We got to the store about 9:40, got it open early. Customer, this lady come in, she's got $60 cash and needed a little show and so I took her back there and we talked about some things. I got her out there door for about 55 and she actually got more than she paid for. But that's another story. We were hammer down by one and it didn't slow down till after nine. Last customer about 9:45, went to the office, started doing the paperwork. Marcella and Rick and Ava started resetting the store and restocking things and we'll do a lot more resetting in the morning. So as far as tomorrow night, we shoot what we want. This is the kid owning the candy store. So we go out back, we lock the doors and we have a good time. Some of the customers show up. We, we shoot what we want. We had over 150 transactions today. Our average ticket was over 200. Has several $1,000 plus sales. We did over 30,000 today. Got us where we needed to be for the season.
- [34:24]
Courtney Harrell
Total for day seven, $40. How many customers do you think came through in the week before the 4th of July?
- [34:33]
Marcella
Our customer count for the 3rd and the 4th was over 500.
- [34:38]
Courtney Harrell
Wow.
- [34:39]
Marcella
So that would translate to probably 5 to 8,000 people came through the store from the 1st through the 4th.
- [34:46]
Courtney Harrell
What did your sales end up being for that week that you were recording?
- [34:50]
Marcella
We were over 200,000 for the season with the whole month of June and in the ten days of May. But we got really drilled the last two days, the third and the fourth, it was very hectic, very busy, big sales. You know, we knocked out over 80,000 in two days. Out of 26 years, this was probably in. In our top seven or eight.
- [35:16]
Courtney Harrell
Why do you think it was so good this year, the last?
- [35:19]
Marcella
Well, you know, I'm not going to talk a whole lot of politics, but I'm politically aware, and I think there's a lot more hope in the economy and the direction of the country now than there's been the last four years. There are Democrats and Republicans that buy fireworks. I know that. But, you know, we have a little more of a patriotic group out here in these rural areas, and it's a different feel.
- [35:51]
Courtney Harrell
The success could also have something to do with their prices. Remember, with working directly with a factory, Mick got most of his inventory in before heavy tariffs hit. So he says he didn't have to raise his prices like a lot of other shops. Now, before even getting to Labor Day or New Year's sales, the shop has already made the $200,000 Mick hopes for in a good year, and that is something to celebrate. Did you go out back and shoot off fireworks this year?
- [36:20]
Marcella
Oh, yeah, yeah. All that hard work. The payoff is getting to the night, the 4th of July, when we just shoot whatever we want, go out back, lock the doors, and have a ball. You know, some of our customers, we invite them in, and the people who are working there and their families come up and we just sit out back and have a party.
- [36:40]
Courtney Harrell
What did you shoot off this year?
- [36:42]
Marcella
Oh, a lot of our big finales. We shot, like, six big boxes of used dead fireworks that I hauled off to the trash. So we probably shot 35 or 40 pieces. Different ones, big ones, little ones. I had to dive out of the way of one. I've got a little ding under my eye right now. Oh, God. We were shooting something and something didn't go off. And so I did something I probably ought not to have done. But, you know, I got the fuse relit and, you know, and it shot out. Just. I dove to the ground and laid there underneath it watching it go off. And, you know, my wife's freaking out. Over there watching. She thinks I got hit, you know, I just got danged a little and, you know, but I'm 67. I don't get up as fast as I used to. She. She was afraid. Well, you didn't get right up and was like, Well, I just laid there and watched it. So, you know, it's okay. No harm, no foul.
- [37:44]
Courtney Harrell
I love that you are still out there diving from fireworks.
- [37:47]
Marcella
Oh, yeah, I'm not dead. I'm getting older, but I ain't dead yet.
- [37:56]
Courtney Harrell
Mick's total for the week was $1,365. What we spend is an Odyssey original podcast. It's written and hosted by me, Courtney Harrell. Our producers are Margot Gray and Justine Dahm. Our editor is Maddie Sprung Keyser. Our executive producers are Maddie Sprung Keyser, Asha Soluja and Leah Reese Dennis. Theme song and original music by Matt McGinley. Additional music from APM music mixing by Pedro Alvira. Special thanks to Kristen Torres, Jonathan Menhivar, Zach Clark, Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney, Hilary, Chef Sean Cherry, Laura Berman, and Hilary Van Ornam. If you want to be on what We Spend, we'd love to hear from you. Write us at WhatWe SpendPodcastMail.com and tell us about yourself. We'll be back next week.
- [39:00]
Kristen Bell
Hello, it's Lena Dunham. I host a podcast called the C Word with my dearest friend and historian of bad behavior, Alyssa Bennet.
- [39:08]
Courtney Harrell
What is up?
- [39:10]
Kristen Bell
It's a chat show about women whose society is called crazy.
- [39:13]
Courtney Harrell
We're going to be rediscovering the stories of women's society dismissed by calling them mad, sad, or just plain bad.
- [39:22]
Kristen Bell
Listen to and follow the C Word with Lena Dunham and Alyssa Bennett. Available now wherever you get your podcasts.