Selling Christmas Trees in TX-Week 1

November 17-23, 2020 

And before we knew it we were at our Christmas tree lot in Carrollton TX. No fence around us here, the city won’t let them, we do have 30amp service and a nearby water source but we’ll be running off the holding tank for the duration. We are located at the intersection of Josey Lane and the President George Bush Turnpike-a toll road, on the frontage road, we are next to a bank and commercial building, a WinCo grocery is across the street and Walmart is just down the frontage road. Since our trees had not yet arrived we started getting our area set up, being our second year makes this much easier as we know how things work, lots of tree stands put together and figuring out, keeping in mind social distancing, our check out and tree prep areas are going to be laid out this year. 

Soon after our trees arrived we started unwrapping them, about 360 trees were delivered, and we’ll have the rest finished tomorrow. Then the owner will price them and we’ll officially be open. We should be busy, seems this is the busiest lot of the 5 Trow Tree Farms has around the DFW area. The first day on the tree lot down, sold 1 tree, lots more to go. 

Day 2 had us finishing up the unwrapping of the trees and getting everything in order for the anticipated crowds that will be coming soon. Our trees didn’t get priced but we were given some guidelines and sold another 2 trees and we’re not really open yet. Made a pot roast, we wanted to add to the leftovers in the fridge, no cooking over the weekends. Talked with the UPS driver, he said we should have no problem getting things delivered to our lot. What do I need on Amazon? 

Day 3 we had another 150 trees arrive that needed to be unwrapped, we now have all of our trees on our lot, 463 or so to sell. We still haven’t had our trees priced, the owner got behind because his wife fell and shattered her wrist this morning, tomorrow he should be here to price our trees. We are open though and are starting to have a few people come in and enjoy the scent of freshly harvested trees. Dave spent the morning working on the plumbing connections, the pump needs to be working as we’ll need it for the next 30 days. Pulled pork smoking in the smoker all day, leftovers to the freezer. We’re stocked up for good quick weekend meals, can’t say we won’t be eating well. Another tree sold today. By the way my Bluetooth speaker arrived today, Amazon Prime delivery has found us, we’re not cut off from the world. 

 Day 4, our first Friday open!! For those who don’t know, or remember, we work for Trow Tree Farm out of Michigan. The owners Ralph and Becky have been doing this for many years. Last year we substituted for friends of ours when they couldn’t make it because of health issues. At the end of the season, we were asked to come back and run the Carrollton lot, so here we are. 99% of the trees are Frasier Firs, we have a few Concolor Firs and 2 Blue Spruce. We are open daily 9-9, we are responsible for the upkeep and sales on our lot, we will get help on the weekend-the owner takes care of paying the help. Twice a day we water our trees, they drink through the “leaves” and with the heat here they need to drink two times a day. We have approximately half our trees standing and the rest are laying down ready to go into the sales area as soon as we have more space. The owner, Ralph, came over and we got all 463 trees priced. By the end of the day, we had sold another 10. Not bad considering Thanksgiving is still 5 days away. 

Day 5, our first Saturday open, 4 days till Thanksgiving. What went from a very slow morning turned into a relatively busy day afternoon, by 7 though the customers stopped coming. We sold 26 trees, from 4’ high to 13’ high, from $39 to $329. Not a bad day at all. What we’ve observed these last few days is first-time buyers of a real Christmas tree are in abundance, folks are making new traditions this year. 

Day 6, Sunday morning, and the trees are all watered, we’re open by 9am. We have one tree on hold awaiting pickup by noon, wonder when the first customer will arrive? Slow start but today would be our busiest day yet, 36 trees and yes our on hold tree got picked up. Lots of great customers, made some good tips, all in all, a good day. We stayed busy till 8’sh, Dave watered the trees and I got the books in order. 

Day 7, time to get some groceries. Not many people out and about at Walmart at 7:15am. No crowds, got our supplies picked up, we’re good till after next weekend, except for the produce run early one morning later in the week, then the WinCo across the street will be handy. Our day was surprisingly busy with 17 trees sold. After a week we had expected to really be feeling the ache and pains we felt last year. I guess losing 30+pds each and getting in better shape is paying off, that’s not to say next weekend won’t kick our butts.  

Your Christmas Tree lot attendants
2601 N Josey Ln, Carrollton TX

So the first week is in the bag, we’ve sold 90 trees, only 377 more to go. 

Until next time….