Demand for fireworks is falling as big chain stores drop them from the shelves and there are calls to ban the public sale of them for good after the recent Canterbury blaze.
Guy Fawkes night is back and on the eve of the chaos and carnage that can come with it, Retail NZ chief executive Greg Harford said fireworks are becoming “quite a niche product” - loved by some people for a few days, but not as popular as they used to be.
“Fireworks are definitely a declining market here in New Zealand – 20 or 30 years ago they were hugely popular and all the big chains were selling them but in response to changing customer demand, most of those big chains have now stopped selling them,” he says.
There are fresh calls to ban the public sale of them for good. (Source: 1News)
“They are a difficult product to handle, they are expensive to manage and store - they are a dangerous good so there are lots of restrictions on how they can be sold - and all of that means fewer people are buying them over time,” Harford says.
Currently, fireworks can be purchased by those 18 and over, for four days – from November 2 until tomorrow night but there are no restrictions on when they can be let off.
Many places across the motu, especially in the South Island, are facing a hot and windy weekend - on already tinder-dry land.
It comes amid a fire in Canterbury that’s now contained that started from fireworks being set off in high winds, according to Fire and Emergency NZ.
“We are virtually into summer now, like just today we've had low relative humidity and high temperatures with nor'west winds, so not a good recipe to put together and add in ignition from a firework or controlled burn that has been left to smoulder and it's only a recipe for disaster, or the community,” says Wayne Hamilton of the fire service.
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