Chain stores taking joy from roadside tree sales

Chain stores are muscling in on roadside sellers to capture a larger share of the Christmas tree market.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- Operating a roadside Christmas tree stand has never been a huge moneymaker. Now that the big boys have moved into the market, it's even tougher.
The National Christmas Tree Association says 17 percent of Christmas tree sales last year were at chain stores, such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's and Target. That's up from 14 percent in 2000, the first year the association began tracking sales at chain stores.
At the same time, sales at tree stands fell from 27 percent to 21 percent of all sales last year, while purchases from nonprofit organizations remained steady at 15 percent, according to the survey.
Wal-Mart now sells Christmas trees at nearly 1,800 stores nationwide, and Home Depot sells trees at all 1,400 of its stores.
"Christmas tree sales are growing in excess of 20 percent annually over the past two years," said Home Depot spokesman John Simley.
More grocery store chains also are selling trees. Food Lion, for instance, sells trees at all 1,200 of its stores in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic with sales projected to be $2 million this year, said spokesman Jeff Lowrance.
An example
Mike Roth, owner of Maine Mountain Man tree farm, shut down his tree stand in Ellsworth in 1999, in part because of competition from Wal-Mart. If he hadn't, he certainly would have shut down after Home Depot opened last year.
"The unfortunate thing is they use it as a loss leader," Roth said. "They seem to drive out the small guy with low prices."
There's debate within the industry about whether it's a "good thing or bad thing" to have chain stores selling trees, said Jim Corliss, president of the National Christmas Tree Association.
"I think this is good because, after all, they're selling real trees, and they're pricing trees very competitively and making them available to everyone," said Corliss, whose family owns Piper Mountain Christmas Trees in Newburgh.
Annual sales of real Christmas trees have hovered between 32 million and 37 million over the past 10 years.
Sales last year dropped to 27.8 million trees, though the association currently projects sales topping 30 million for 2002.
Though Christmas tree sales at chain stores represents a growing trend, the biggest worry for growers is artificial trees, not big box chains.
Of American homes with Christmas trees, only 32 percent last year were real, and 68 percent were artificial, the association says. A decade ago, real trees and fake ones were about evenly split.