Editor’s note: The Maine Department of Administration and Finances reported in an email Thursday, July 2, that the data Maine Revenue Services provided the Bangor Daily News for this June report omitted more than $4 million in sales for some fireworks retailers between March 2012 and May 2015.
Fireworks sales were not down 11 percent to date for fiscal year 2015 from the same time last year, but were up 0.3 percent. The fiscal year 2015 sales were $4.8 million through May, while through the same time in fiscal year 2014, sales were $4.7 million.
Fiscal year 2014 sales slid only 9 percent from fiscal year 2013, not 27 percent as previous data reported. Total fiscal year 2014 sales were $6.1 million, not $4.4 million, while total fiscal year 2013 sales were $6.8 million, not $6.1 million.
The total sales tax revenue generated in fiscal year 2013, the first full year in which fireworks could be bought, was $343,992, not $307,425 as Maine Revenue Services reported to the BDN.
All told, fireworks sale through May 2015 totaled $20.3 million, not $16.2 million as Maine Revenue Services data previously reported.
While fireworks sales have not declined much as previous Maine Revenue Services data provided the BDN in June suggested, fireworks sales have begun to flatten out.
Three years after the Legislature lifted Maine’s six-decade-old ban on fireworks, it appears the novelty is wearing off. As July 4 approaches, sales of firecrackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles and other such explosives are 11 percent lower this year than they were at the same time last year, according to figures from Maine Revenue Services.
Through the end of May, Maine’s 24 fireworks stores had generated $3.1 million in sales during fiscal year 2015, which ends June 30. That’s down from $3.5 million at the same point in 2014 and $5 million at the same point in 2013.
Overall, fiscal year 2014 sales slid 27 percent — to $4.4 million from $6.1 million — from fiscal year year 2013, the first full year during which fireworks sales were legal. During the last three months of fiscal year 2012, after the ban was lifted, when sales were especially brisk, fireworks generated $2.4 million in sales.
“In the first couple years of anything new, [sales are] going to go up then level off,” Andre Vandenbulcke, owner of Ahh Fireworks in West Paris, said. “We had people coming in every week to try something new.”
In fact, fireworks sales outperformed expectations at the time. Before the first sales in March 2012, Maine Revenue Services estimated fireworks would generate $120,000 per year in sales tax revenue. But fireworks sales contributed $307,425 to state coffers in their first full year.
Steve Marson, owner of the Maine-based chain Pyro City, said it seems some people “got the fireworks bug out of their system.”
Despite the softness in the market, Marson, who has six locations throughout Maine, including stores in Windham and Presque Isle, said he generally has not seen a decrease in business. The boom hasn’t continued for everyone, though, Marson said, noting he has bought up stock from several fireworks stores that have gone out of business, including Short Fuse Fireworks in Old Town.
As for Vandenbulcke, he’s optimistic. He opened his second store in Maine three weeks ago in Oxford.
Another factor that may play into declining fireworks sales, Marson said, is the patchwork of restrictions municipalities have imposed on their sale and use, some of which have been in response to nuisance complaints.
According to the state fire marshal’s office, 74 municipalities across the state have enacted fireworks ordinances, including two that prohibit the use of fireworks and 37 that prohibit the use and sale of fireworks.
For Vandenbulcke, June sales have been good, so far.
“As long as the weather cooperates, we’ll have a good year,” he said.