Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
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The Revs. Laura and Patrick Hamrick of Eden, N.C., and their son, 4-year-old Dunn, picked out a 7-foot-tall Nordmann fir Friday at Ayers & Kreh Christmas Tree Farm in Patrick County. Richard Kreh, one of the owners, said sales have been about average so far this year. (Bulletin photo by Paul Collins) |
Monday, December 14, 2009
By PAUL COLLINS - Bulletin Staff Writer
The economy doesn’t seem to be as much of a Grinch as expected for local Christmas tree sellers this season.
Tommy Inman, one of the owners of Betty’s Trees at Commonwealth Boulevard and Virginia Avenue, estimated Friday that roughly 5 to 10 percent fewer people are buying trees there, and among those who do, roughly 40 percent are buying shorter (less expensive) trees.
“I attribute it to the economy,” Inman said. “I expected worse, but it’s not quite as (bad) as I thought it would be.”
“This is our 21st season selling trees in Martinsville,” Inman said. He speculated that people buying artificial trees might be cutting into his lot’s business somewhat, but he noted that some customers have told him they tried artificial trees a few years but returned to real trees.
“Real trees make real scents, s-c-e-n-t-s,” he said.
Frank Cumbee, the other owner of Betty’s Trees, said some customers have told him they would do without presents to have a real tree.
Mike Bowers, owner of Bowers Tree Lot on Appalachian Drive in Koehler, said Friday his sales are “fair, about average.” More rainy days than usual have kept some people from getting out to buy trees, he said, adding he was expecting sales to increase in the next several days.
Bowers thinks the economy might have hurt his sales a little bit, he said, adding that a lot of people are out of work in this area. To try to help, he said, he has lowered prices by at least $5 on all his trees compared with last year, and he is offering more of the less expensive trees.
Bowers said he doesn’t think artificial tree sales will cut into his business. “I think if a man wants a real tree, he will put up a real tree,” he said.
Ayers & Kreh Christmas Tree Farm on Ayers Orchard Road in Patrick County has seen about a 5 percent increase in sales compared with last year, which was a down year because of the economy and weather, said Richard Kreh, one of the owners. So this year is about an average year for sales, he said.
Kreh said that many customers say they come to the 25-acre choose-and-cut tree farm for the family experience. He said he planted his first trees there in 1980, and some people who remembered visiting the farm when they were young children are now coming back with their own children.
Laura and Patrick Hamrick, pastors of Leaksville United Methodist Church in Eden, N.C., went to the tree farm Friday with their 4-year-old son, Dunn. They usually go to a retail lot but heard about the tree farm and decided to go there for, as Laura Hamrick put it, “a little family adventure.”
“It was a very fun outing. We took a few pictures along the way,” Patrick Hamrick said.
Laura said she researched the farm and Nordmann fir trees on the Internet before visiting.
They walked around the farm and found a 7-foot-tall Nordmann fir to their liking, and Patrick sawed it in a jiffy. He said they plan to keep the fresh tree up in the church parsonage where they live until Jan. 6, Epiphany. Epiphany is a Christian observance of the Magi visiting the infant Jesus.
Coincidentally, before the Hamricks left the tree farm, the people who told them about it drove up, and neither family knew the other was going to be there. This was the third year Lisa and Michael Rose and their 4-year-old son, Harrison, of Madison, N.C., have been to the farm, Lisa Rose said.
They said it’s a nice family outing, that Harrison especially enjoys the wagon rides, that the farm has “awesome trees” to choose from, and they like going inside the sales office and getting hot chocolate.
Lisa said Michael “took the afternoon off from work to do this,” and they brought a video camera along to record the outing.
“Building memories” is how she summed up the trip.
According to the “2009 Christmas tree intentions poll” on the National Christmas Tree Association Web site, 69.6 percent of respondents indicated they plan to display a real Christmas tree this holiday, 15.9 percent plan to display an artificial tree, 10.7 percent plan to display both a real tree and an artificial tree, 1.4 percent plan to display no tree, and 2.2 percent have not decided yet. (The survey was updated Dec. 11.)
Of those planning to display a real tree, 45.3 percent plan to visit a choose-and-cut farm to buy their tree; 15.6 percent plan to visit a retail lot; 33.8 percent plan to purchase their tree from a garden center, nursery or chain store; and 1.1 percent plan to buy their tree over the Internet, according to the survey.
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