I know I’m late to this thread but I just gotta say – I was working at a seasonal tent in Texas over the 4th and holy cow. We were restocking shelves twice a day and still running out. The America 250 hype was real.

What I noticed was a LOT of first-time buyers. People coming in asking basic stuff like ‘what’s the difference between a fountain and a cake’ – which is fine, we all start somewhere. But it was insane how many people were just grabbing armfuls of whatever was on the shelf without even looking at prices.

The price gouging was real though. Our prices didn’t change much cuz the owner is pretty fair but I heard other tents near us were marking stuff up 40-50%. Gross honestly. Felt like everyone was trying to cash in.

I’m curious if the same crowd shows up for New Years. My guess is no – NYE fireworks are more of a ‘serious’ pyro thing around here. But we’ll see!