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Jul 3, 2008 5:25 pm US/Central
Price Of Fireworks Skyrocketing
NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 News) ―
People going to buy fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July have left surprised. The price of fireworks has skyrocketed!
"The weakening value of the dollar in relation to Chinese currency has basically tacked on about 15 percent right off the top," said Randy Nelson of Nelson's Fireworks Outlet. "The wages of the rural Chinese worker has risen significantly as China becomes more of a developing economy."
A container ship full of fireworks blew up in port, sending shipping prices up. All told, fireworks are up around 25 percent, and that's blowing up budgets.
"My limit was $100. He had $60. We kind of went over a little bit… like $200," said fireworks shopper Rayne Reynolds.
In many cases, vendors are trying to absorb costs. Nelson suggests buying cakes, a whole show in a single package.
"These are what we call a zipper or fan cakes," he said. "They're going to have more shots per cake. The shots won't be quite as big, but you're going to get more coverage over the sky just zippering back and forth. It's a different nontraditional kind of cake."
The hunt for new cost effective ways to have a blast still has the same old dangers.
Click here for safety tips.
Or, you can leave the work to the professionals.
Click here to check out fireworks shows near you.
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