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Tales from the Obama economy, Christmas trees already discounted because no one is buying them

We buy our Christmas tree from the same nursery every year. Guy's been in business forever, he knows his market. In years past a 9+ ft frasier fir has set me back anywhere from $120 to $150. And they sell out fast.

It's been a hectic month and we missed what we thought was our "window" to buy a big tree. Because a week before Christmas always means all the nice big ones are long gone. So imagine my surprise when I drove by this morning and saw he had a whole bunch of big trees still for sale.

They were marked at $90 and $100.

I pointed at the biggest one and he immediately said, without prompting, I'll let you have it for $80.

Wow. It's 8 days before Christmas. He's discounting? I was expecting to pay that much for a 6 or 7 footer.

So I asked, what's going on?

Nobody's buying, he said. The big ones aren't moving this year.

Up the road a ways there's one of those pop-up Christmas tree lots, every tree $24.95! He's stripped clean, with only a few scraggly ones left in the corner.

I'm also noticing fewer houses with elaborate outdoor decorations. Electricity rates have necessarily skyrocketed dontcha know. But Dear Leader has 54 Christmas trees in the White House. So there's at least one family who's not having a bleak Christmas. As for the rest of us, well it can't be good when Santa starts tightening his belt, can it?

Posted at 10:40 by Chris Wysocki   [/economy]   Comments | Perm Link |
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