BONUS: We Buy A Lot Of Christmas Trees

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🗓️ 20 December 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Every year, Americans buy tens of millions of Christmas trees. But decorative evergreens don't just magically show up on corner lots, waiting to find a home in your living room. There are a bunch of fascinating steps that determine exactly how many Christmas trees get sold, and how expensive they are.

On this episode of Planet Money, NPR's Nick Fountain and Robert Smith visit the world's largest auction of Christmas trees — and then see how much green New Yorkers are willing to throw down for some greenery.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there, consider this listeners. It's Audit Cornish and today is Sunday, which means we have a
0:05.0	bonus episode for you. It's a story from our colleagues at NPR's Planet Money Podcast about
0:10.8	Christmas trees. Each year, Americans buy tens of millions of them, but the journey a tree takes
0:17.0	to your living room is an odd and kind of fascinating one that reveals a lot about how the economy
0:23.4	works. For more smart stories about the economy from NPR's Planet Money, check out the link in our
0:29.5	episode notes. Host Nick Fountain and Robert Smith take it from here. Christmas tree? Christmas
0:36.3	trees? A Christmas tree here? Planet Money Christmas tree. The day after Thanksgiving, Nick,
0:42.8	UNI participated in a grand American tradition trying to make a buck offer religious holiday.
0:49.2	You guys need a Christmas tree? We're good, thanks. Christmas trees. Look at that beauty right there.
0:53.6	Planet Money Christmas trees. We had a pickup truck filled with Christmas trees, a few signs on a
0:59.6	corner in a fancy Brooklyn neighborhood, and we were ready to make some cash. How much does a six to
1:05.2	seven foot Christmas tree go for these years? We're asking for $150. And people are actually paying
1:11.2	$150. No, no, they are not. Not a single person. That's why we still have a truck full of trees.
1:17.2	So you're trying to do people into buying two expensive Christmas trees? Is that what's going on?
1:23.9	I don't think it's dooping. It's seeing what the market will bear. Okay, and the market so far
1:29.6	has not worn nothing. He was right. We were striking out. What was it? Where our prices do high?
1:36.8	Was our sales pitch off? Maybe people couldn't see our fancy podcast microphones. I think, I think,
1:42.8	we got a customer. We're curious if this is a tree sale or if it's a news program.
1:50.6	It is both. I know. Kind of crazy. Amanda and Leo Sydren and some extended family were headed to
1:58.2	the park when they saw our sign. It was just a matter of realing them in. Are you interested in a tree?
2:04.4	Yes, we are interested in a tree. Excellent. We were just discussing how much to charge for them
2:09.5	because we haven't overheard you say that you think they might be worth $150. Before we put a price
	...

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