Fireworks sales surge as high gas and beef squeeze budgets

Backyard fireworks sales have surged this year as households keep spending on a once-a-year July Fourth ritual even while gas and ground beef remain costly. Fireworks retailers say demand is running strong heading into the holiday, the industry’s most important selling season, even as shoppers face a cost-of-living backdrop that still leaves little room for error.

The pressure on household budgets has not gone away. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Consumer Price Index rose 0.5% in May 2026 and 4.2% over the previous 12 months, with gasoline among the categories moving higher. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said food prices in May were 3.1% higher than a year earlier, while food-at-home prices were up 2.7%. For cookout shoppers, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and BLS data put the U.S. city average price of all uncooked ground beef at $7.064 per pound in May 2026.

That has not stopped families from treating fireworks as a protected form of celebration spending. The American Pyrotechnics Association says July Fourth is the industry’s critical selling period and that fireworks sales are highly seasonal. It also says fireworks laws vary sharply across the country and even more at the local level, with 29 states allowing all consumer fireworks and Massachusetts prohibiting all consumer fireworks.

The industry’s supply chain remains tightly tied to China, which the association says produces 99% of consumer fireworks and 90% of professional display fireworks. That dependence has made the business especially sensitive to tariffs and other cost pressures, risks the association says could hit small, family-run fireworks companies and weigh on 2026 America 250 celebrations.

Inflation is still expected to keep household spending decisions tight through the rest of the year. The USDA Economic Research Service forecast in June 2026 that all food prices would rise 3.2% in 2026 and food-at-home prices would rise 2.8%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Consumer Price Index for June 2026 is scheduled to be released on July 14, a fresh reading that will show whether consumers are still trading down on necessities while holding the line on the small splurges that mark the holiday.