Customers may have to pay more for Christmas trees this holiday season

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - For those of you preparing to shop for the holiday season, you may have to pay a little more for that Christmas tree this year whether it’s an artificial or natural one.

A rise in gas prices and delivery fees are the reasons businesses are passing on the costs to customers, according to several stores and Christmas tree farms Action 2 News spoke to on Monday.

The pressures caused by the pandemic on the global supply chain is impacting many different sectors and the items they sell.

“This is a very frustrating year,” Mike Kapp, owner of Taylor Creek, said as he chuckled. “Just having to have a lot of patience for when the product is getting here. Luckily, our trees came in this morning. About 75% of them.”

Taylor Creek is located in Green Bay’s west side and is a specialty store in business for nearly 40 years.

On Saturday, Taylor Creek will remove its Halloween items and instead put up Christmas decorations it plans to sell this season, including artificial trees.

According to industry experts, there is a backlog in orders due to shipping problems at the ports, which is causing delays for stores that ordered artificial Christmas trees. Suppliers are also charging more for delivering them and its forcing stores to pass on some of the difference in costs to customers.

“That’s really all based on surcharges that we’re getting on freight,” Kapp said. “For getting the trees here on the containers that price has gone up substantially over the last year with all the problems.”

Kapp said customers should expect at least a 5% to 10% increase in prices.

“What I bought the trees at is locked in from last January, and most of the surcharges are coming from the freight forwarders,” he said.

Action 2 News reached out to several Christmas tree farms in Northeast Wisconsin. Most won’t begin selling trees until after Thanksgiving Day.

Still, a few told us people should also expect to pay more for natural trees due to planters shelling out more for gas and the chemicals they use.

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