Labor Day 2026 fireworks haul — anyone else seeing less variety on the shelves this year?

[Steve Kline]

#6031

Went to my usual spot today to pick up the Labor Day stash and man, the selection is rough compared to last year. Normally they’ve got like 4-5 brands of 500g cakes to pick from, this time it’s basically World Class and a few random generics. The guy at the counter said their distributor has been struggling to restock since July.

I know there was talk about the America 250 wiping out inventory but I figured by Labor Day things would be back to normal. Guess not.

Anyone else noticing the same thing or is it just my area? Also if anyone’s found a store that’s still got Brothers or Winda stuff on the shelf I’d love to know where.

[Mike Brenner]

#6034

Dude same in Ohio. My regular guy said his mid-July restock order is still sitting as “processing” — distributor keeps pushing the date. He told me a lot of the Liuyang factories took way longer to bounce back from that July explosion than anyone expected.

I did manage to snag a case of Brothers 500g cakes from a place about 45 min out though. Had to drive but worth it. The stuff I’m seeing at the closer tents is definitely bottom-of-the-barrel selection.

[Michael]

#6035

Yeah the supply crunch is real. We’ve been tracking this on the site for a bit — there’s a piece in the Fireworks News section that breaks down the post-America 250 supply situation pretty well if you want the bigger picture.

Short version: the Liuyang production recovery is slower than projected, plus a lot of the container shipments that were supposed to land in July got pushed to August/September. Labor Day retail stock is gonna be tight pretty much everywhere. If you see something good on the shelf, grab it — don’t count on restocks before the holiday weekend.

[Author]

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