Image by Flickr user chotda

The Fourth of July is right around the corner, and we all know what that means: fireworks. But, believe it or not, some local fireworks stand owners are saying that they're simply not making as much as they did in the past.

The Post and Courier spoke with several stand owners to get the inside scoop, one of which was Grippie Lawson. Lawson's been in the business for 36 years and says that it's getting harder and harder to keep a fireworks stand going--and even harder to open one.

"Don't look for easy money," Lawson said. "The fireworks business is not as easy as it used to be."

Another local fireworks stand owner, Tommy Mock, said that one big reason that the business is suffering is because of gas prices and inflated shipping costs. In the past, Mock's markup was about 200%, but now, due to gas prices, it's significantly less, between 50 and 100%.

Get the full scoop from local fireworks stand owners over at The Post and Courier's report.