by Laura Conaway

Andrew writes from central Wisconsin:

I have worked over my college winter break for three years at the same Christmas tree farm, and this is the first year that I have been told that the owner simple doesnt have enough business for her to hire me. I worked for a couple weeks making wreaths, but after the wreath sales peaked in early December, there werent enough trees being sold to justify having my brother and me work.

 

In addition to realizing that I am now part of the underemployed, I noticed something else that was different this year from others. We couldnt sell any trees over 8 feet from our lot! We sell both pre-cut and cut-your-own trees, and virtually everyone buying a tree from the lot was looking for a 6-7 foot tree. This caused us to have to cut the bottoms off of some 8-10 foot trees in order to sell them. Because we charge by the foot, this was sacrificing value in order to liquidate stock, perhaps an interesting parallel to selling assets at a loss in the broader economy. Happy holidays, and keep buying tall trees if you can afford to!