Tag: christmas

It’s been slow this year selling Christmas trees. It’s very obvious that people just aren’t nearly as loose with their earnings as they have been in previous years.

It’s all good and still a lot of fun, but I haven’t had time for much else other than selling lately.

It’s funny to see the different types of buyers. Just to stereotype a little (hopefully in a non-offensive way…my apologies in advanced), here are the different things that I noticed:

• Men, when shopping for a tree alone, tend to spot all of the trees in the height range they are looking for as they walk in. After looking over a select few, they narrow down to the best all in a matter of 3-5 minutes.
• When families shop (parent(s) and child(ren)), the husband tends to stand back and approve or disapprove the children’s pick while trusting or accepting the wife’s pick. The wife is usually mingling in the trees with the children and looking along with them. The husband handles the payment process always unless he prefers to load the tree himself, where his wife pays. Usually takes 20-30 minutes.
• Couples choose a tree similarly to families, with the male approving of the wives pick and not so much just going along with anything. Basically he has more input and always handles the payment. Usually takes 5-10 minutes.
• Just women or mothers and their children seem to take much longer, inspect every tree multiple times, decide on one then change their mind and go with the second pick (happens about 50 percent of the time). Usually takes ~20 minutes.
• Then there is that rare retired couple who come through and want to help by purchasing any Charlie Brown trees. They are usually the most genuinely kind customers and usually take 3-5 minutes.

That’s a pretty brief set of descriptions of the Christmas tree shoppers I see. It’s fun to watch, but they are very predictable. Sales are also pretty predictable. You usually know before you say “Hello” whether or not they will buy a tree from you or if they will want to “shop around a little more” or “check with their wife or husband before they purchase and then come back.”

Like I said before though, it’s all fun. Especially seeing the children light up when they get to pick the tree. They love it so much. It’s really cool. 😉