Improvements For Our 4th Year Selling Christmas Trees
Hey guys Phil here at Woods Tree Farm I Realize it's been a few weeks since I've Done a video I struggle to make videos When we are focused on the actual Business here and you know when we're Busy for Christmas season it's a very Short season there's a lot to do to uh You know get everything ready and like I Said I just struggle to get the camera Out and struggle to make videos so I Didn't film anything the last couple Weeks not since the building was Delivered I think that was the last Video that was published and I'll show You more about that in a minute but in Today's video I wanted to give you an Overview of our Christmas tree sales Area here and talk to you a little bit About a couple things we've done Different for this year a couple things That have worked well and then I'll give You a preview of the shop and what it Looks like and then we'll talk a little Bit about what we're going to do Different for next year So to kick us off let's talk about how The trees are displayed I have Definitely shown this in previous years We didn't change much of this year we're Still using some t-posts pushed into the Ground most of the trees on display out Here are just slid down on those t-posts And they're just kind of freestanding Here and we like to look at that uh you
Know that gives it kind of looks like a Tree farm right and Um you know it just gives a nice kind of Visual appearance people can walk all Around those trees without tripping on You know anything else that's around Those trees to help them be displayed There's other options to get the same Look like if you do the pin displays we Don't have that but from what I've seen That looks similar to this but you end Up with some boards on the ground that All of your pins are bolted to which Could be a tripping Hazard for people so That's kind of the only big difference Uh there we also use some pallet racks Over here basically to set up some Pallets put a two by four in between Them and lean the trees on that that Works out okay last year we did get a Few of these metal Um I don't know what you call them metal Display stands and they hold up the tree Like that I don't have that many of Those I think we got 20 of them last Year so I you know some of the trees are Just lean straight on the 2×4 some of The trees are held up with that what I Have found is that customers when They're out here browsing they can't Really figure out how this works so Usually when a tree gets pulled out of The bracket it doesn't go back in that They end up just leaning it next to so
We have to constantly come back and put Trees back up on these but these work Okay we definitely use these uh along The fence which I'll show you in a Minute for the bigger trees but the Pallet rack without these honestly works Just fine and for simplicity's sake it Is way easier than doing the t-posts in The ground so as our tree lot has gotten Bigger over the last couple years we're Doing more with these racks rather than More posts on the ground and just to Increase the number of tree is on Display without building another pallet Rack I have this old hay wagon and we Just screwed some pieces of wood around The side of that and lean trees up Against it and that works fine give us a Display space for another at least 10 or 12 Trees this was an addition for this Year we're calling this the elf lot and We had all these uh Tree Tops from some Uh some scrubby trees that we got that We bought for a brush to make wreaths so We had the tops of some trees we had Some damaged trees that came in and we Were able to salvage them it makes all Sorts of little trees here on the elf Lot so when the building came in I Mentioned that we're up on this Hillside And it was too big of a step to just you Know jump right into that side door so I Decided to go ahead and build a ramp Build it to like ADA compliance specs
It's wide it has the right slope so that If someone you know needed that they can Get access to the building that's on one Side on the other end of that Landing There is a step but all along this rail Originally we were going to display the Wreaths on this railing but as we were Putting trees out I said why don't clean Up trees here and that actually worked Out really well so there's been trees Leaning on that railing the entire time We've been open and then leaning all Around the building we were leaning Trees out there here's some along the Back and then on the other side of the Building and I'm walking uphill now we Had our biggest trees still have our Biggest trees out here this tent is just Air drying because it rained last Weekend I'm going to fold this up for This weekend because there's no rain in The forecast but we had that over our Bailing table here just to keep the Workers a little bit drier than you know Being out in the weather and then leaned All the way up against the fences where We had our biggest trees and all of These like I mentioned before did use Those metal brackets so that worked out Pretty good our biggest trees are still There I've got still maybe I don't know Four or five that are over nine feet Over on the pallet rack on the other Side of this red tent we have all of the
The trees that are eight to nine feet Not a huge number of those left I do Still have a couple of them wrapped up That we can un unwrap but that's it all In all I think I've got about a hundred Trees left across all the sizes not Including little elf trees just of the You know six to nine foot or six to ten Foot trees got about a hundred left so Hopefully all of those move out of here This weekend and we can call this season A wrap this will be our first season Doing three selling weekends each of the Last couple years we've sold out in two Weekends so after we wrapped up last Weekend I was a little bit nervous but I Realized yeah three selling weekends is Probably pretty normal so we just had Some unusual years and we didn't get That many trees in previous years we got More this year than we've ever gotten we Got 415 trees and Um you know it's just gonna take us an Extra weekend to move through all this Like we've done in past years we make a Big deal about trying to have as much of The festive of tree farm experience as Possible so we've got the Griswold car Cut out there again with an ugly old Cedar Tree on top down there by the fire Pit we've got Jingles the old red truck With a truck in the with a truck with a Tree in the back we've got our little Mock hot chocolate stand down by the
Water that's down there we've got the Abominable Snowman cut out down there We've got the measuring tree down by the Pond and then just over there we set up A little bench right now none of the Props are out there but they will be When we open up tomorrow we put some Little fake packages an old sled and a Little tiny Christmas tree and a couple Other things to make that look all Decorated so the photo props are super Popular and over in the elf lot the Little kids playhouse has a wreath on Top a lot of people were taking photos With that we've got the Little Tykes car With a little tree on top people love That so anyway we we are building on More of those experience elements year After year and the truck is kind of the New thing for this year and we'll Continue to do more of that kind of Stuff in the future there's a Little Tikes car there's the playhouse so this Is um right outside of kind of the main Commerce area with the shop building Right here so people who would pick Their tree off of the lot you know take It behind the shed or a worker would Take it behind the Shad where it would Be prepped shake shake and bailed Whatever people wanted to do to prep And then the customers would go in the Shop which I'll go and show you that Building right now
So inside the shop here customers would Actually walk in that side door that's Where the ramp is and they would exit The door on the porch which you know Kind of threw people off because the Porch looks more inviting and everyone Wanted to come in that way but you know We made it work we put some signage up And uh you know it worked out okay Inside here right now we're set up for a Wreath class so these big double tables That are in the middle are not usually Here when we're open for regular tree Sales time we've also got a couple Wreath making benches in here one's over There and one's just right next to me Right here so this is a little bit more Open a little bit more spacious when We're set up for retail time and there's Another table of product that we put Right down the middle and you can walk All around that but this has actually Really helped us move more product this Year so I think it's pretty safe to say That over a couple Seasons this building Is easily going to pay for itself Because people are spending more money Because we have this building we are Selling more non-tree merchandise than We ever sold before and we don't Necessarily have any more product or any We don't have a larger variety of Product or anything like that than we Did last year with our big tent it's
Just displayed better and when you're Able to come in out of the weather and Then we have a heater running in here And it's nice and cozy people are Spending more time and people are buying More product so I'll talk more on that Topic and I'll talk a little bit about What people are actually buying in a Future video but I did want to show you The layout in here you know as far as Tables go we've just used we have one Old spool right there let me just use These basic you know kind of eight foot Long banquet tables as our primary Display tables and we put Um you know some tablecloths on there Use different kinds of boxes and Different things to get product at Different heights we made this shelf Over here out of some extra wood that we Had laying around so we were able to Display some product there this table is Usually not here that's just wreath Decorations and we have this old Hutch In our house we brought it out here so We were able to just play coffee and Some decorative stuff and jams and Jellies and honey and a few other things And we've got another table here with Some more product some of this product That's in here is from local Crafters It's here on consignment so doing that Has helped us get a lot more merchandise Here than what we could Supply or what
We're willing to buy and inventory Ourselves so this has really helped us Grow the size of the shop considerably So I'm coming back to finish filming This video two days later because when I Started this on Friday night we were Open Friday night for sales from four to Seven some customers came I got busy it Got dark I didn't finish so I wanted to Talk to you briefly about what we know We want to change for next year and I've Commented before about how our whole Property is sloped so it's a pretty good Downhill here to the pond and having Trees on the other side of our new Building there down the hill it's a lot Of work to pull trees from display a Bring them uphill we prepare them over There and then customers take them out In that direction so we actually have Some property here on the other side of This little tree line so we want to Expand the tree lot uphill in this Direction so that it'll be a lot closer To bring pre-cut trees out to people's Cars the other thing we want to do and This will be a major investment is clear Out this over here I talked about this Last year I actually started taking some Trees down here last year but we got a Quote to do the actual excavation work And we decided not to do it last year But that would be a huge Time Saver for Our workers to not have to take trees
All the way up to people's cars in that Direction if we just had a nice little Pull around right here where people Could drive up and if they needed Assistance loading we could do it right Here so that is definitely something That we're going to look at for next Year not just from an efficiency Standpoint it's just going to be easier On all the workers too everybody is dog Tired at the end of the day taking trees All the way up there so that's going Going to be the biggest difference for Next year is we want to make some Serious improvements for the tree lot Aspect and of course next year we're Going to start cutting some of our own Trees as well so that's going to be a Big change for our operation because Those trees across the pond that you can See there in the distance are now about Six feet tall next year we'll have some Eight to nine Footers and that's going To be really exciting now we're going to Have maybe 100 maybe a little bit more Trees that we can cut off this property For the first time so uh the future Video I'm going to talk to you more About retail sales and what I think Worked really well this year last year I Did a video on the top selling products And I'll do that again because we had Some differences this year than last Year so stay tuned for that thanks for
Watching you guys I'll catch you on the Next video bye-bye
