Done with Fireworks

Once again I’ve spent my entire week working at the fireworks stand for church. I got to sleep two nights at home and camped out at the stand for security the other five nights. This year didn’t seem nearly as crazy as years past but I think we did better than we did last year.

The stand a few blocks down the street from us was burglarized Monday night but I never heard how much was stolen. There was also a shooting in the same parking lot as that stand the night of the 4th.

The thing I don’t understand is why people get angry when I say that I’ll only sell them fireworks for the price on the tags. Tons of people start giving sob stories about how they need to bring home huge and cool fireworks or their kids will think of them as the failures they are, but they are unwilling/unable to spend the money for them. And yes, fireworks are too expensive which is why I don’t buy many for myself. One lady started crying because she wanted to buy $90 in fireworks but only had $20 and I wouldn’t sell to her for that price. She went on about how her kids needed the really big and cool fireworks but she couldn’t buy them because she was a single, 25 year old mother of 4 who didn’t have enough money for expensive fireworks. Granted I was willing to make some deals with people that late in the evening since everything I didn’t sell would need to be inventoried and packed back up, but I wasn’t willing to lose money just to make someone happy.

I’ve never seen any of these people harassing the attendants at the gas stations saying they need 10 gallons of gas but only have $10 to spend so the attendant should sell them gas anyway or they won’t be able to take their kids to the movies later. Or seeing people at Fry’s saying how much they need that 60” 1080p TV for $2000 off the sticker price or their neighbors would suspect that they’re too poor to own one otherwise.

Yes, I’m tired from working around the clock for a week and slowly recovering. I’m still saying “Never Again” when it comes to running a fireworks stand but a heavy bribe could change that again.