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The Economics of Christmas Trees

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Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees

#81

Post by julianlam »

> At an average retail price of $75 a pop, these trees make up a $2B+-per-year business.

Good lord, is this true? Why are they so bloody expensive south of Canada? We paid $25 for a Christmas tree from IKEA, and we got a $25 coupon to spend in the new year, which essentially made it free.

I mean, you can pay $75 for a tree if you want.. the local youth art theater does this as a fundraiser, and you can go direct to the farm and pay this as an "experience", but that price at a big box store, wow...

Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees

#82

Post by pastorhudson »

I was pretty surprised that Quarter Pine was featured in this article. We get our tree from them every year. I paid $60 for the tree and gave the guy who loaded it $5 tip.

The cool thing about Quarter Pine is they suspend the tree and drill a hole in the bottom of the trunk. They sell a special stand with a peg you put the tree on. It’s the slickest experience I’ve had with a real tree stand.

Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees

#83

Post by MivLives »

pastorhudson wrote: post #82

I was pretty surprised that Quarter Pine was featured in this article. We get our tree from them every year. I paid $60 for the tree and gave the guy who loaded it $5 tip. The cool thing about Quarter Pine is they suspend the tree and drill a hole in the bottom of the trunk. They sell a special stand with a peg you put the tree on. It’s the slickest experience I’ve had with a real tree stand.

Everyone who discovers that type stand never goes back. The majority of places around here do it. Some with a drill which isn't always the best.

Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees

#84

Post by freedomben »

kurthr wrote: post #23
Slartie wrote: post #11

This is really interesting. There seems to be a significant difference between the US Christmas Tree economy and the one in Germany. We got our tree for this year a week ago directly from a grower in the local area where we always buy our trees. It is of average size (the 6'-7' size is also what we mostly consider a good size over here) and it only cost us 30€, so our prices here seem to be significantly lower than i…

The price from a grower (with 20-30% margin) is $30-35 or about the same. It's the fact that retailers (like always) have a 100% markup (50% margin) so if you go to a random convenience store it'll cost double and they'll make the money. No different from most consumer items. Fake trees last forever... until you throw them away, and then they still last forever.

This is becoming less true with pre-lit trees. We paid an astounding $700 for a tree and the stupid incandescent bulbs burned out and within a couple years the lights didn't work anymore (replacing bulbs did nothing). I was furious that Pottery Barn did not use LED lights in 2016 on a tree that expensive.

I ended up buying light strands and wiring them myself and I gotta say the final product, while eye bleeding expensive, is amazing. Unlike built in lights mine run all the way through the whole tree, into the middle. There are also a lot more lights now than there were before, and they have different plugs for colored lights verse white, so I can use smart plugs to toggle remotely for example. All in all a great end result, but it was probably $1,300 and 8 hours of labor to get there.

Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees

#85

Post by my_username_is_ »

mNovak wrote: post #55
Slartie wrote: post #11

This is really interesting. There seems to be a significant difference between the US Christmas Tree economy and the one in Germany. We got our tree for this year a week ago directly from a grower in the local area where we always buy our trees. It is of average size (the 6'-7' size is also what we mostly consider a good size over here) and it only cost us 30€, so our prices here seem to be significantly lower than i…

The geography doesn't scale up for the US though. I imagine people in Oregon, near the growers, also pay less per tree.

Oregonian here. The prices at Ace Hardware yesterday were $40 for a Doug Fir, and $65 for a Noble Fir. A couple years ago I think I paid $60 for a Doug Fir. But you can also just pay $5 to get a permit from the Forest Service and go cut down your own tree. There are some restrictions (no trees over 12', and there must be other trees within 20' for example) but it's fun to hunt your own tree down--even if the tree that you get isn't a perfectly triangular cone shape like you may get at a tree lot

Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees

#86

Post by [deleted] »

brentm wrote: post #78
Aeolun wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fake trees last forever... until you throw them away, and then they still last forever. Unfortunately they look like a fake tree forever too. It’s better than no tree at all, but not very inspiring.

You'll never beat the real thing without the smell but if you spend decent money you can buy a convincing looking fake.

[deleted]

Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees

#87

Post by Retric »

brentm wrote: post #78
Aeolun wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fake trees last forever... until you throw them away, and then they still last forever. Unfortunately they look like a fake tree forever too. It’s better than no tree at all, but not very inspiring.

You'll never beat the real thing without the smell but if you spend decent money you can buy a convincing looking fake.

Faking the smell is straightforward, but the vaguely creepy feeling of a dying tree in your living room is another story.

Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees

#88

Post by js2 »

butwhydotjpg wrote: post #79
js2 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve lived in NC piedmont area (a couple hours drive from tree farms) since 2004 and basically paid $65-75 for a 6-7 ft tree every year. Every year but one we’ve gotten our tree from whatever corner lot was convenient. (One year we were late and only Home Depot had any trees left.) There is either a shortage of trees this year or people shopped early. We got our tree earlier today and it was the last of two. They gav…

Due to the long growing cycles for christmas trees, we're now entering a shortage caused by the 2008 recession, and it's expected to last a few years.

That's mentioned in the article but I thought that mostly played out in 2018 and last year.

Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees

#89

Post by beerandt »

kurthr wrote: post #23
Slartie wrote: post #11

This is really interesting. There seems to be a significant difference between the US Christmas Tree economy and the one in Germany. We got our tree for this year a week ago directly from a grower in the local area where we always buy our trees. It is of average size (the 6'-7' size is also what we mostly consider a good size over here) and it only cost us 30€, so our prices here seem to be significantly lower than i…

The price from a grower (with 20-30% margin) is $30-35 or about the same. It's the fact that retailers (like always) have a 100% markup (50% margin) so if you go to a random convenience store it'll cost double and they'll make the money. No different from most consumer items. Fake trees last forever... until you throw them away, and then they still last forever.

About half of the US doesn't have an economically workable species/breed of tree unless they charge those higher prices. Virgina Pine grows well in the south (was the historical staple crop until 20~25 years ago), but doesn't naturally grow in cone shaped, and requires trimming/shaping and spraying multiple times a year for the 4-8 years it takes to get a marketable tree. Most southern tree farms have replaced V.P. with Leland Cypress (not really a cypress) or a similar/derivative breed of tree with promises of low/no required tending, but they also ended up having pretty high maintenance costs and don't market as well. (They look more like privacy bushes to me, and are also sold for that purpose at nurseries.)

So it ends up being cheaper/more profitable to ship trucks of harvested firs/etc from where they grow almost naturally, and "export" them clear across the country.

Also, the actual/current market for locally grown trees (at least in the south) is sustained 99% by people who still want the experience of choose-and-cut. And that also costs more to run than a commoditized crop.

Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees

#90

Post by rdj »

Timely. We just, as in a few hours ago, wrapped up our season as owners of a u-cut tree farm. It's relatively small, just under 30 acres. But our family was just doing a post-mortem on what went well, what we need to change and making fairly detailed plans for next year and even several years out. I can tell you more then you want to know about the growing, spring/summer and fall care. The shaping. The labor to trim, drill, bag, etc. It's fascinating to see the impact 2008 had on planting and the resulting shortage of trees these past couple of years. I don't have any real point other than, been there, doing that, have the t-shirt, ask me anything. Oh, and this part of the farm is basically a side hustle to my normal 9-5 infosec job. Merry Christmas!
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