$2,000 for a Christmas tree? Customers paying a higher price: WSJ

This year, people are going all out for Christmas. There’s just one problem: finding a Christmas tree.

On the streets of Hong Kong, 8-foot Noble Firs are selling for as much as $2,167 apiece, while in California and New York shoppers are paying more for what they say are inferior trees. And in the U.K. retailers are scrambling for more trees.

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS SELL OUT FASTER THAN USUAL

The pandemic means millions are unable to travel over the holiday season, and are celebrating at home instead. That’s produced a spike in demand for trees — and a run on decorations.

Carla St. Germain, a 55-year-old business owner in Fargo, N.D., doesn’t normally buy her tree until mid-December each year, but this year unseasonably warm weather made her go a week earlier than normal. It was a good thing she did.

“When I pulled in on the side street on the side where I normally get my tree it was completely empty,” she said. There were still some 8-foot and taller trees left and “some super tiny short ones that you’d put in the corner of the apartment.” Mrs. St. Germain said she ended up persuading the seller to cut down a larger tree for her. (An 8-foot tree would have been too tall for her house.)

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

“My husband said it’s the most unusual Christmas tree I’ve ever bought,” Mrs. St. Germain said. There is no central trunk to place a tree topper and the branches are all reaching for the ceiling like they’re performing the Village People’s hit song YMCA, she said.

Click for more at WSJ.com