Shelton Fireworks — Local services in Contiguous United States

Quality goods by quality people.

I work with, collect and shoot a wide range of fireworks. I Visit every supercenter, store, trailer, tent and roadside, other I can. I have a passion for it along with my nine year old daughter. So here is one example of one trip we took to our, "OUR" robertsdale Alabama Shelton. We regularly make the drive over you understand. We police up a loos shopping cart from the parking lot and bring it in as the store manager is doing the same. My child is not running to see the fireworks or play or other nine year old things. She runs over to the girls working on unpacking and sorting novelty fireworks, her friends. The late teen early twenties young women that welcome her like a little sister happy to see her as always.

The manager shakes my hand and we talk about how things are going for the store as the 4th closes in. He also remembers I was looking for a particular firework cake two weeks ago and points it's location out to me. It's almost 4th of July. Six hundred people a day are coming and going. He rebuilt, stocked and opened a satellite store across the interstate, gets multiple trucks a day with multiple hundreds of pieces of inventory to be offloaded, uncased stored and or stocked and he remember I wanted a blue meltdown for a show I'm shooting in September. So I collect my cart of fireworks and help a few different groups and individuals with fireworks questions and recommendations. Not pushy but if I hear a question or they simply ask me I enjoy being helpful. I get thumbs ups and thank yous from the staff as they all know me. I have had customers recognized me I'm there so much they think I work there. They receive, inventory and stock mountains of fireworks every week. I am amazed every week to see entire new canyons of fireworks. I read labels, watch videos and test the weight and build quality of wraps and packaging of all new product every week. More conversations with staff and multiple times watching how they help people. Those like me that know a bit and family's with no idea what they're looking for.

I go upfront, pay and a daughter runs up to me with $4.. The young ladies pitched in and payed her. ( And NO.. In no way did Sheldon fireworks engage in child labor or seek to pay for same, when it comes to my 9-year-old daughter.) They made my nine year old so excited and happy to stand there and talk and hand them little bags while they worked. She paid for her own soft drink from the machine and talked about the entire experience in bible school for the next week.

Now we are in there 30 or 50 times a year. We spend $30 to $300 a visit most of the time but I talk to and see the same helpful effort with the weary interstate traveler looking to stretch their legs as I get. They care about what they do and how they are perceived. I have shot hundreds of shells and cakes and fountains and novelties from Shelton fireworks and never once thought I was cheated on quality or price. No duds or dangerous problems. Not everything blows your socks off but that's true of any consumer fireworks no matter where you get them. Quality goods from quality people. The store is well maintained and clean from the bathrooms to the register. Well stocked is an understatement. If there is less than twenty of something people are scrambling. It is a fireworks theam park for buyers, shoppers, shooters, families or the road weary trucker. Yes the parking lot is big enough you don't have to make a button hook anywhere to get back out with a tractor. Take it from an old gear...

Want to buy fireworks? The good ones? - Here's the place. I've come here a 1/2 dozen times over the past 10 years. Whenever I'm looking for a stunning New Year's Eve display, this is the place I come to.

Two years ago, I bought a solid 10 minutes worth of fireworks for about $300 for our new year's eve party. It wasn't Tom Brown's, but then again it kinda was because the explosives didn't attain the same altitude so they kinda looked Tom Browny.

Frankly, it's remarkable what you can get here. Driving up to the building (you can see it from what seems like 2 miles away), you realize it's damned huge. At first, I thought it was simply a double-wide behind a big billboard but that is NOT the case. The interior offers evidence of significant structural overengineering. (or, perhaps, not overengineering, but design suitable for containing the entire inventory in the event of some cataclysmic detonation!)

Sure - we've bought our fireworks from various parking lots around town - but for some additional zest, I highly recommend stopping by and reacquainting yourself with the awesome stuff that we all played with as kids.

One last word: "M-80's" haven't been available in the U.S. legally for a good long while. However, read the following, lifted from Wiki: " In 1975, U.S. federal regulations were passed to limit all consumer-grade fireworks available for general sale to the public in the United States to a maximum of 50 milligrams flash powder, down from a previous maximum of 200 milligrams. However Firecrackers mounted onto a rocket stick, or other aerial firework devices, such as rockets, Roman candles, and cakes etc., may still have significantly more, up to 130 mg, or more, depending on device and classification, and can be legally purchased by any American civilian citizen."

So... - there's that. Which is nice...

Although truthfully, now that I'm the Dad and no longer the boy with his posse, roaming the woods, I'm no longer all that big on this...

Review from a Pyro's perspective:

Sheltons is a pretty cool experience even if just to see the overwhelming quantity of fireworks on display. They probably have something like 1,000 different products on offer and they literally stack their cakes 20 or 30 feet high.

Sheltons focuses primarily on selling their own line of products under a few brands (El Toro, Mad Hornet, Black Avenger). I would say these brands make up around 70% of the store's selection. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it allows them to keep their prices low for the general consumer.

As a fireworks enthusiast, I like to stick to the more well-known brands like Winda, Brothers, Fox, Raccoon, Black Cat, Dominator etc, and Sheldons does have some of these with a more limited selection. I would say they probably had 20 different 200g cakes and 10 500g cakes from Winda/Brothers/Dominator. Their prices for these are cheaper than any fireworks tent, but more expensive than wholesale. An average 500g cake at Sheltons is around about $40.

Sheltons does have a pretty sweet purchase tier program, where you get a certain amount of "free" fireworks depending on how much you spend. I purchased around $200 of products, and was very surprised when the cashier said I could go back and pick out anything up to $53 for free! For that amount I was able to grab another Brothers 500g cake and a small arial 200g.

Overall I think Sheltons is worth a visit if you are in the area. You can't go wrong if you are looking to get the most fireworks for your money. If you are looking to build a high-end show full of name-brand fireworks, you might want to consider...