For last-minute Christmas tree shoppers, you may be out of luck this year. Fewer trees are in the market, and those lucky enough to find that perfect holiday tree are shocked by the price.
Those in the business attribute it to the ‘perfect storm’ – a summer drought, higher shipping and labor costs, one less week to sell this year, and a fading tradition – that has hit them particularly hard this holiday season.
Diane Branciforte has been in the nursery business for 31 years. She doesn’t remember it ever being this hard to turn a profit selling Christmas trees.
”The shortage started a long time ago because of the drought in the summer,” Branciforte, who owns Hartford Gardens in Medford, Burlington County, with her husband, Frank, said. “The cost of (getting) them to us is astronomical.
“What we used to pay for trees – they’re like 3 percent higher than last year. It’s crazy. And the shipping has gotten to be thousands of dollars; it never used to be,” added Branciforte. “It’s killing the industry.”
Other owners and growers share her sentiment in South Jersey.
Most of Branciforte’s Christmas tree supply comes from Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Last year, Branciforte ordered 500 Christmas trees. Over 200 never sold. And she said they were chopped up and given to nearby farms to feed to goats.
This year, Branciforte cut her shipment by half to 250 trees. Even so, she thinks she will barely break even, given what she paid to have the trees shipped and delivered to her shop.
Then there are the labor costs of having two part-time employees unwrap, cut, bale, and load the trees onto customers’ vehicles.
As a result, Branciforte said she’s had to charge more for Christmas trees than in previous years.
Hartford Gardens, adorned with lights and Christmas décor, is hard to miss on 272 Hartford Road. What started as a little greenhouse with bedding plants over the years has grown to offer landscaping, hardscaping, and patio work.
Branciforte worked the shop with her son this week as her husband Frank was battling a cold.
“Frank’s 80 now,” she said. “I’m 77. We’re getting up there in years. We don’t know how much longer we can do this.”
“As far as the live Christmas tree tradition, that may be fading too,” she said.
“I think most people are going to artificial because the cost has gotten crazy,” Branciforte said. “It’s gotten embarrassing how much we have to charge for them.”
She said this year, a five-footer, depending on whether it was a Fraser or Douglas fir, cost anywhere from $99 to $112, and a 12-footer ran between $250 and $300.
Branciforte had a dire prediction for next year.
“They’re saying next year there’s going to be a big shortage because of the drought this year and the hurricanes down South,” she said. “So what are they going to cost next year?”
Late last Thursday, Branciforte had 20 Christmas trees left of the original 250 shipments.
“We’re down to the end. Hopefully, by this weekend, we’ll get rid of them,” Branciforte said. “There’s no profit in doing this anymore. There used to be. They’re just too expensive to buy. Labor has gone up. Fuel has gone up. And it’s passed along to the consumer.”
Branciforte then got up to take a phone call. She told the caller she had a couple of six-footers left but declined to give a price.
“They are what they are,” Branciforte told the woman on the phone. “We’re at the end of the line, and I don’t want to eat it. Come in and we’ll talk.”
