Imagine owning a store that isn’t open all year round. You’re only open for seasonal events. If a potential customer called you wanting to buy something you sell, but you weren’t going to be open again for months, what would you do? Would you refer them to a competitor, open up shop, or simply tell them they’re out of luck?

In this story, one fireworks salesman was in that situation, and he originally referred the potential customer to a competitor. Then the customer gave him more details about why he wanted the fireworks, and he felt compelled to help.

Keep reading for the whole story. It’s actually really sweet and starts with why this guy loves fireworks so much.

This is entirely my dad’s fault! [Tales from a Fireworks Tent]

BACKGROUND: I own and operate my own retail store. It’s actually a seasonal fireworks tent, but not like any fireworks tent you’ve seen before. It’s 2400 square foot of fireworks heaven.

STORY: Like a lot of my customers, I inherited my love of fireworks from my father. I would always wait in gleeful anticipation for the 4th of July to roll around, knowing that we would make our annual pilgrimage to Angelo’s Fireworks in Louisiana.

My dad would always set a budget, and I would always convince him to go over it, with Mr. Angelo’s help of course.

He was sneaky.

As I got older and started to earn my own money, I would always stash some away, waiting for the 4th to roll around.

When we went shopping, I would always claim poverty, so dad would pony up the dough.

At the last minute, I’d pull out my saved stash so I could get “just a few more things”.

He always blames his dad.

Now that I’ve opened my own fireworks store, when I’m working and people ask me how I got into the fireworks business, I’ll point to my dad and tell them that it’s all his fault.

Every time my dad hears me do this, he’ll shrug his shoulders and claim he has no idea what I’m talking about.

I received a phone call asking about fireworks a couple of days ago. This happens almost weekly, and when it does, I explain that I’m only open seasonally, and refer them to someone else.

The caller is putting on a show to celebrate his wife’s birthday. He was injured while serving in Iraq, and is just plain thankful he’s still around to celebrate her birthday. One of his good friends was not as fortunate.

He always feels sad by these stories.

Believe it or not, I’ve heard similar stories every year since I started the fireworks company.

The stories always make me sad, but I’ve heard them so often, I think I start to unconsciously tune them out. I didn’t want the caller to be disappointed, so as usual, I referred them to one of my competitors that has a store open year round, unfortunately more than an hour away.

I had made my spiel! I was ready to hang up! Then he hit below the belt.

He thanked me for the referral, but said he’d have to skip the birthday fireworks, since he wasn’t able to make it to one of the stores on the coast. He assured me that he and his son would stop by my store before NYE to stock up. Since he’d been injured, his son had taken over the lighting duties, and it was one of the things they looked forward to doing together every year.

He decided he had to help.

You jerk.

This afternoon, I’m driving an hour to make a firework delivery.

I don’t normally do that when it’s out of season, but I’m making an exception this time.

The phone call came from someone I’ve never met, but after speaking with him, I can’t wait to meet both he and his son. This should keep them busy for a while. Oh yeah, Happy Birthday to his wife too.

That’s so sweet that he’s making a special delivery.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a teacher who learns a lesson of his own from his student’s essays about personal responsibility.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person has some suggestions.

Another person wants to visit his fireworks tent.

This person wants to start a war with Universal.

Another person compares beer to fireworks.

That was a super sweet story. It says a lot that he’s going out of his way, and I mean clear out of his way, to deliver fireworks to a veteran for his wife’s birthday. That is so touching!

The comments make it clear just how much of an impact this story has on other readers. It’s amazing how many people want to visit his tent just because he’s a great guy, not even because they want the fireworks.

Sales is about more than having a good product. It’s about being a good person that people want to support.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a hotel guest who complained about noise from an event, then reported the employee who agreed with him.