Forty years ago when Orbit Fireworks first opened in Columbus, Deborah Turman was just 10 years old helping her dad sell bottle rockets and Roman candles and count the profits they stored in an old cigar box.
Since her father passed away in 2013, Turman has taken her dad’s role as the owner of Orbit and each of its eight locations, including three in Columbus, two in Starkville, and one each in Louisville, Macon and West Point.
Of the eight locations, Turman said four have permanent buildings while the other sales are operated from temporary tents. Turman said she purchased properties years ago and has continued to grow her business.
“Firework sales have increased over the years,” Turman said. “Families are enjoying them and buying them for the holiday. I can keep a comfortable lifestyle doing it, but it took me 30 years to get to that point. I started so young, I had to work my way up to that. I bought the land years ago and used the tents. I finally got my land paid for and put up permanent buildings.”
Nationwide, firework sales continue to grow as well. According to the American Pyrotechnics Association, an advocacy group for legalization and safety of fireworks, revenue hit nearly $1 billion for 2018, with that number expected rise for 2019. That’s nearly equal to the gross revenue of the final film installment of Harry Potter when it hit cinemas in 2011.
For Turman, even though sales increase year to year, those numbers usually are indicative of mother nature.
“It depends on the weather,” Turman said. “If you got good weather, you do pretty decent. At New Year’s, it rained so we weren’t really successful during the Christmas season. So far, the weather has been good, so everybody is shooting. It’s been good business. We are stocked up and getting ready for the big boom on July 3 and the Fourth.”
According to the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, the state has two firework seasons: The Fourth of July and New Year’s. Firework retailers can sell fireworks from June 15 through July 5 and Dec. 5 through Jan. 2.
When Turman is not organizing, stocking and selling fireworks, she is a hairdresser for about 10 months out of the year. Each firework season, Fourth of July and New Year’s Day, she takes one month off to prepare for the big celebrations. She starts by purchasing imported fireworks from wholesale retailers in Missouri, Kansas and Louisiana and stockpiling each of Orbit’s stands with more than 2,000 varieties of customer’s favorite fireworks. During the “busy days,” Turman said she employs up to 30 workers to meet the customers’ demands. Over time, Turman has been able to pinpoint exactly what customers are looking for, knowing the ins and outs of each firework available.
“Firework fiesta are one bad mother,” Turman said. “It has 96 shots of color and noise in the air, and it lasts a long time for the money.”
For enthusiast Joe Holt, a tradition of shooting fireworks has been three years in the making for him and his sons, Anthony and Detrick.
Each year, Holt said he buys at least $100 in fireworks, though he said his sons sometimes go over budget.
“My favorite firework is the halo fireworks. I like those,” Holt said while shopping at Orbit Fireworks in Columbus. “When they go up in the sky, they really explode. They are really colorful.”
Holt said it’s not about the fireworks as much as it is sitting with his family while the sky lights up with colors and noise.
“We all shoot them off together,” Holt said. “It’s fun to see my children smiling and see the explosion of the fireworks. The smiles on their faces is worth it. It helps us bond as a family.”
Turman said running a business for just two months out of the year has been worth it. Since she was 10 she was following in her father’s footsteps. Now years later she said she knows he’s proud where she has taken the Columbus business.
“He got to see some of my accomplishments of taking it a little further than he did,” Turman said. “The sales and inventory he went through wasn’t as large as it is now. Daddy passed, but he got me started when I was real young. My dad just got me to the drive of making it prosper and get better every year. It’s always been a part of my life. It’s all I know.”
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