DYER | His real name is Greg, but he's been called Krazy since his dad, Melvin Kaplan, gave him the nickname.

"I grew up in the shoe business and my dad always called me crazy," said Kaplan, who owns and operates Krazy Kaplan's fireworks outlets in Hammond, Dyer, Highland, Merrillville and LaPorte. "It stuck. Nobody knows me as Greg anymore. They call me Krazy. I thought it was an appropriate name for the type business we do."

Kaplan worked in his family's chain of local shoe stores after college, eventually becoming the women's shoes buyer. But despite its history that began in 1928, Kaplan walked away from the business when he saw problems ahead for the business and the retail shoe industry.

"Me and my dad differed in the way we ran the businesses," Kaplan said Monday. "I respect him but he took bad risks. He kept expanding and it took down the stores..... The whole industry changed from domestic to all imports."

The Northwest Indiana-based shoe store chain closed it last store in the mid 1990s.

In 1991, Kaplan opened the first Krazy Kaplan's fireworks stores in Hammond, Griffith and Dyer.

Although he has 200 employees including those that are seasonal, customers numbering in the tens of thousands, and revenues reaching into the millions, Kaplan contends "the business is changing like anything else."

"Competition from the seasonal fireworks stores doesn't help me," he said. "We're a year round business and they're not. I pay for building and property taxes year round. There used to be big profit in fireworks, but not anymore. As things get more competitive, you have to lower prices."

One answer to increased competition is through advertizing, said Kaplan, who has 340 billboards across the region touting his 10 stores.

"I spend too much on advertizing but it pays," he said. "In any business you get out of it what you put into it."

Kaplan's permanent stores have change merchandise with the seasons. But it's quitting the Christmas market.

"You can't keep up with big box stores," Kaplan said. "They have cornered the market on (Christmas) seasonal-type items. Halloween will become marginal too. Their buying is huge. They buy directly from China in massive quantities."

But Krazy Kaplan's still rules in fireworks, he said.

"Big Boxes don't carry the breathe and depth of fireworks we do," Kaplan said. "We will carry all sorts of items Walmart, Target and Kmart wouldn't consider. It benefits the customer to come to one of our stores because that's what we do."