November 29-December 10, 2019
We have been living on the Christmas tree lot for almost 3 weeks. Prior to opening, we enjoyed getting out to a variety of restaurants to take care of our different food cravings; Italian, Mexican and Asian. We knew once we opened we wouldn’t be able to go out for dinner till we closed the lot for the season.
 |
| My office |
We officially opened our lot on Thanksgiving and made 5 sales that day. As of 12/10, we have sold 335 trees. We had another delivery of trees the week after Thanksgiving bringing our total trees to sell to 514, only 179 to go.
 |
| Trying to drum up business |
Our days are much the same, we open the lot at 9am and close at 9pm. About 8:30pm I close out the books for the day and Dave starts watering the trees. If we have to go grocery shopping or do laundry those are done before we open. Of course, the weekends are the busiest, thankfully we are provided with good help for those days. Weekdays we are averaging 12 sales a day. We have a motion detector so when we are slow we can enjoy the comforts of our home while waiting for customers to show up. Dave has made 15 deliveries so far, he gets paid directly for those, and we hope to have another 5 by the time we leave. We’ve had some very great and generous customers so the tips are adding up, we’ve also been the recipient of some delicious baked goods. A big thanks to the local customers for making this such a great experience for us.
 |
| Trees for the kids |
 |
| "Fat Albert" |
 |
| "Saguaro" |
 |
| "Blueberry" |
Every day we spend time moving trees around the lot, filling in holes where trees have gone onto homes, tending to broken branches and keeping the lot presentable. Some of the trees are 12’ to 14’ tall and weigh 200+ pounds, thankfully we only have 4 of those left. As the season winds down we are moving all the trees inside under the tent when a hole opens up.
 |
| 12'-14' trees |
For those who might be interested in being an attendant on a Christmas tree lot: it can be physically demanding, especially early on when the lot is full of trees, you have to help customers get the trees loaded into or onto their vehicles, the hours are long though you’re not always busy but you have to be on sight, lots of cash and check handling involved-thankfully we don’t have to deal with credit cards. It can be a rewarding job-lots of great customers and for the short time we are here we are making decent money and not spending much. We do have the ability to order stuff off of Amazon since they have lockers a mile or so down the road. Will we be doing this again? Ask us in March, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we do, we have been told they will have another lot in need of help next year. The owners are great to work for and want us to take ownership of our lot, the only thing we don’t have a say in is the pricing of the trees but as the season winds down we have been given a little leeway in what we can offer the customer in savings.
A local business lighted up the front of the parking lot.
The weather has been all over the place, from sunny 70’s to cold and rainy 30’s, we can’t wait to get to the AZ desert and continual sunshine.
 |
| Our Christmas tree this year |
Until next time…
We once thought about doing this but so far have not pulled the trigger. It would be interesting to hear how much you make of the course of the season to see if it is worth it. Do you have to flock any trees? That sounds like a lot of work.
ReplyDeleteIt is a lot of work, subbing for friends has given us a chance to try this without the expectation of coming back though I think the owners want us to. We didn't carry any flocked trees this year but when they do the flocking is done at the main lot and the flocked trees are brought to the lots.
DeleteSounds like it is going pretty good! Can't wait to hear the final report.
ReplyDeleteSo far so good though the first weekend was a killer. Another week or so and we'll be done.
DeleteI like your tree. I know others who have worked a lot and had a hard time keeping hired help. Maybe it was a bigger lot. They didn’t have a good experience. Sounds like you have a nice one.
ReplyDeleteI've read the same things on a few blogs. We actually interviewed with another company but we would be acting as managers and have to hire locals, not what we wanted. Our friends who have done this lot for years don't want help, we find it beneficial to us to have help and it's no cost out of our pockets. Our help is a local man who has known the owner of Trow Tree Farm for 20+ years, his family owned a local nursery and he and his father used to work one of the Christmas tree lots. Now days he works for Trow Tree Farm every Christmas season, since we were new this year he is assigned to us this year. I know our lot isn't as large as some, we've seen larger ones in Phoenix and Corpus Christi.
DeleteLove your little saguaro tree. Hope you get the rest of those trees sold so you can close it up and head to AZ.
ReplyDeleteThanks!! Only 167 left, hopefully we'll be down to under 100 by the time the weekend is over. We are so ready to head to AZ. See you soon.
DeleteYou are the second blogger couple we know who is working at a Christmas tree farm this season. Sounds like similar experiences - lots of hours, tough work, good money, nice people. I think the nice people part makes a huge difference in the rest of the analysis. I would imagine most customers coming to the lot are happy to be there and having fun. Customer service is always easier when the customer is happy to be there. Either way, it sounds like a pretty good deal, especially when the crazy hours and tough work have an end date quickly approaching... This holiday season is definitely going by fast!
ReplyDeleteWe knew we could do anything for a short time, it's certainly paying off. We've only had two customers we've called Richard Cranium, otherwise we've had great customers and it's been fun helping them. Even the ones who don't buy have been nice. I enjoy customer service so much more in this lifestyle, happy campers when we're working at a campground and now happy Christmas tree shoppers. Less than two weeks and Christmas will be behind us.
DeleteThat was a quick month. It has been chilly the past few days. Hope you sell out this weekend.
ReplyDeleteChillier here than we like, thankfully we can be in RV when we're not actively selling. Only 158 to go!!
DeleteGreat information. Sounds like a good short job though I imagine it keeps you from Christmas with any family. Do you get to leave at the end of Christmas Eve? Where Will you be in Arizona?
ReplyDeleteWe'll be leaving on the 23rd if not the day before. We won't make it to Phoenix by Christmas but we'll be in AZ at Kartchner Caverns SP if all goes as planned. Then off to Tucson for a few days, Lost Dutchman SP for a few nights then Anthem (just north of Phoenix) on 1/3 for a month.
Delete