![]() Fireworks Over America runs both wholesale and retail operations out of Odessa, Missouri. Redneck Fireworks obtains virtually all of its products - comprising about 400 different items, Shaon estimates - from the Springfield, Missouri-based wholesale operation of its predecessor, formerly called Mid-American Fireworks but now known as Fireworks Over America. With state permit in hand, Shaon set about stocking his store and serving customers. The devices themselves must pass a fire extinguisher company’s inspection each year. For example, he says he must keep particular types of fire extinguishers no more than 35 feet away from any point in the store. After obtaining state and federal tax identification numbers as well as a retail sales tax license and proof from the Missouri Department of Revenue that he does not owe back taxes, Shaon applied for and received his state jobber’s permit.įrom there, Shaon focused on meeting fire safety codes. Because Shaon is over 18 and operating out of a permanent structure, he meets basic state jobber permit requirements. Among them are permits for manufacturers and distributors, each of which cost $775 a year per location a permit for wholesalers, with a fee of $275 a year per location a permit for seasonal retailers, which costs $50 per year for each location and what is called a “jobber” permit, which for a $525 annual fee per location allows the retailer to sell consumer fireworks for use outside the state of Missouri year-round as well as to residents during the fireworks season. Department of Transportation.Ĭonsumer fireworks businesses may operate under a number of different state permits, all issued through Missouri’s Division of Fire Safety. He rented the roughly 2,000-square-foot building, which houses an office and product warehouse along with the business showroom, and began meeting the requirements for obtaining a license required to sell consumer fireworks as labeled by the U.S. Shaon, who already has a full-time career as a social worker for the children’s division of the Missouri Department of Social Services, says he has “always wanted to be an entrepreneur” and decided to pursue his aspiration when the former fireworks store remained vacant for several weeks. “I told him, ‘This is available it’s on the interstate,’” Harris says. ![]() Harris offered her son-in-law advice, business contacts and a bit of a push to open the new fireworks retail operation. Shaon’s mother-in-law, Sharon Harris, managed the store for 23 years when it was the Fireworks Supermarket and retired when it closed. Other aspects of Redneck Fireworks have their roots in the store’s former ownership as well. “If it’s a go after August, we’ll probably completely change the signage.” The storefront sign, which still closely resembles Fireworks Supermarket’s former signboard, will signal the enterprise’s fate, Shaon says. If it goes well, Shaon hopes to place the store back on a year-round footing with a couple of employees. Shaon, 34, and his family have been running the fireworks business in what he describes as an “exploratory” season. But it’s the hope of bang-up in-season sales that prompted Fulton resident Matthew Shaon to launch his fireworks business in the former home of Fireworks Supermarket, which closed its Hatton exit store in the fall of 2013. “We don’t have rockets like this in Virginia.”Ĭustomers like the Wrotens are the off-season backbone of Redneck Fireworks, which opened last April in a year-round store near the Hatton exit along Interstate 70. “My grandson wanted me to bring him some,” David Wroten says. ![]() When their shopping concluded, the Wrotens emerged with a package of Screamin’ Eagles Rockets and a variety of other fireworks to take back with them to the East Coast. Virginia residents Leea and David Wroten browsed through Redneck Fireworks east of Columbia on their way home from a visit to Macon, Missouri, last spring and took in the shelves filled with products ranging from Morning Glory Sparklers to an assortment of cake fireworks.
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