Christmas Trees

[roscioli]

Anybody Sell Retail (or wholesale) xmas trees? I do, decent money, good timing.. Season here ends at thanksgiving, trees start day after thanksgiving. We sold 767 last year, plan on 800 this year easy. Am I the only one?


Wrong forum, I know... But what forum would this belong in? I think there should be a christmastreesite.com. Anyway, feel free to move it if its bugging you, i just put it here for some exposure.

[Guido]

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of profits can be made in your area on the trees? I know my neighbor used to sell them from his Gardencenter in a "high end" city. He would let them people pick them out, and he even offered delivery. (most of the yuppies didn't want pine trees sticking out of they're shiney little lexus'!) :)
He said he was making decent money, but we never really talked numbers.

What happens if biz is bad? Your stuck with a bunch of cut trees that you paid for??

Do you get into wreath's and such too, or just strictly trees?

[mdb landscaping]

i used to work for a buddy who sold christmas trees. He would go to the supplier and pick the trees up with a few landscape trailers. He put those on stakes and as he sold them, he figured how many to get the next week. That way if sales are down, you can just not go down and pick anymore trees up, and also you can get them more freshly cut if you go every week or so to get more. most of the trees sold for around $35, but im not sure what type of profit he turned. He would deliver, and he made most of his money on making the wreaths.

[thfireman]

Not sure what a bulk price on trees would reun here, but my dad goes up to the mountains (Thats where they grow them in NC) and picks up one for each of his kids. He gets trees that cost about $30.00 each and the same ones would sell in Charlotte tree lots for at least $55.00 or so. Now Lowe's and Home Depot sell them and they seem to get cheaper each year but they dont look as good as a lot sold tree to me.:cool:

[Always Green]

A friend of mine did it for several years, one year it was 3 days till x-mas and he still had lots of trees, so we made grave blankets, took them to the VFW and donated them got a great tax writeoff. keep that one in mind if it looks like your going to get burned

[1MajorTom]

I like this thread.
I would like to hear more about it.

Who is your tree supplier? How much are you paying for the trees, and what are you selling them for?

Do you get different varieties of trees, or do you just specialize in one kind?

Where do you go to sell them? Do you have to pay to rent a space? How do you prevent your trees from being stolen each evening when you aren't around?
Or are you selling from your home?

Ok, I'll stop with the questions. :)

Inquiring minds want to know. ;)

[Brickman]

Jodi around here we have a few lots spring up every fall. What they do is lights, and LIGHTS. It stays lit just like day. That would help to keep the unwanted free hand outs to a min I would think.

[thfireman]

Most tree sales lots here have a camper on the lot and the owner of the trees sleeps in the camper. That and keeping it lite helps keep thives away.:blob2:

[Floridalandcare]

All our Xmas trees come from up north , So the prices here are alot higher due to shipping, etc.. Ive thought about doing this before with Fireworks for the 4th, Pumpkins for Halloween ,But I think Xmas trees would probably be the biggest money maker of all three, everyone has a tree at Christmas. If any one wants to send a semi full down here let me know 50/50 split everything . Im not expecting any takers but it would be profitable

[Lawn Wizard]

I sold xmas trees last year


Who is your tree supplier? How much are you paying for the trees, and what are you selling them for?

We got our trees from a supplier in Michigan. A tractor trailer shows up the day after thanksgiving. Ill can have some exact numbers for ya in a few days as to what it cost, how many we ordered, and how many we had left after xmas.

The trees were priced by variety and size. for example miniature 3-4' frazier fir would go for $25, a 5' scotch pine would go for only $25, a 6' colorado blue spruce about $36, 7'Fraizer fir $70, etc.

Do you get different varieties of trees, or do you just specialize in one kind?

We had miniature fraiser firs, scotch pine, concolor pine, normal sized fraiser fir, colorado blue spruce, and douglas fir.

Where do you go to sell them?

I sold them as part of a fundraiser for a local church. In their parking lot

How do you prevent your trees from being stolen each evening when you aren't around?

Some trees where stolen. The miniature trees we kept in a gated area.

In my experience everyone wants a fraiser fir because they have a nice soft needle, look very nice, and dont lose their needles.

Scotch pine is the cheapo xmas tree that always attracts price shoppers.

Blue Spruces lose alot of needles

Douglas Fir is the classic Xmas tree. These are massive trees.

[roscioli]

Sorry Jodi- Never noticed your post. I will PM you with info, don't really feel like giving all my info out to all! Also dragging this up for the other guy who just posted the same question.

[1MajorTom]

Thanks Lawn Wizard and Roscioli. :)