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Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
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Christmas Tree Lots Sprout Across S.D. County

The smell of pine trees, the sounds of Christmas music and the abundance of twinkling lights bring a smile to many during the holiday season.

For Steve Zona, the smells, sounds and sights of Christmas are all part of his job for one month throughout the year.

Zona is the manager of Stu Miller’s Christmas tree lot at Aero Drive and Murphy Canyon Road in San Diego.

The lot, which is part of Stu Miller’s Seasonal Adventures, based in Northridge is in its last year at the Aero Drive location.

The lot will soon be developed into an ambulance and dispatch center, Zona said.

In addition to his month as a Christmas tree lot manager, Zona also spends his time operating a pumpkin patch and carnival in October. In November, he manages an iron works lot, which makes large holiday light fixtures, such as a snowman or a Santa Claus. It’s all part of his three-month employment with Seasonal Adventures.

The company, which has 700 part-time employees during the holiday season, operates 21 lots in California and Nevada.

There are 11 in San Diego, six in Las Vegas and the rest in other parts of California, said Zona, who is in his third year working for the company.

Rob Lambert, owner of Stu Miller’s Seasonal Adventures, said the average Christmas tree lot can generate about $10,000. Lambert said competing with other Christmas tree lots, as well as national retailers such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart, has trimmed the bottom line.

“With quality and fresh trees we try to make picking out a Christmas tree a fun event,” Lambert said. “Six of our Christmas tree lots even have live reindeer.”

Typically, a lot can sell about 2,000 trees; companywide, about 50,000 trees were sold last year, Lambert said.

Trees can range from as low as $24.95 to as high as $200, he said.

While the company is looking to expand, Lambert said he has lost about 5 percent of its market every year to artificial trees, which have become more popular throughout the years.

The Kearny Mesa lot, which gets fresh trees delivered every four days from Oregon and North Carolina, also sells holiday lights, wreaths, garland and holiday decorations.

Norm Osborne has been operating Pinery Christmas Trees, based in Rancho Bernardo, since 1992.

With five locations in San Diego, two farms and three satellite locations, the company employs about 150 workers throughout the holiday season.

Osborne, who owns the company, leases the majority of his lots because the price of land has made it too expensive to own, he said.

“You can’t afford to own your own lots in San Diego,” Osborne said. “It costs $20,000 a year for a farm.”

Osborne’s two tree farms are in Rancho Bernardo and Bonita, where customers can pick their own live trees. The two tree farms also help provide trees to the other Pinery Christmas tree locations.

The tree lots also are furnished with trees from Oregon.

Wholesale trees can range from $10 to $300, he said.

With Christmas lots seemingly on every other corner, Osborne said it has been difficult to sustain a business throughout the years.

“It’s very difficult , difficult for any business to make a profit anymore with all the competition,” Osborne said. “Through quality and superior service, that is the only way to serve your customers.”

Like Stu Miller’s Seasonal Adventures, ABC Tree Farms, LLC, which is based in Santa Clara, operates a lot in San Diego.

The company has 17 retail lots in California, including four in San Diego County.

ABC Tree Farms harvests its own trees in Oregon.

The company has been in business for more than 20 years and supplies all the trees and products needed for the lot, said Wendi Foster, the marketing director for ABC Tree Farms.

“We encompass the entire business,” she said.

A year-round business, the company leases the majority of its lots and operates pumpkin patches during the fall.

When the holidays are over, the company works toward getting ready for the next year’s holiday season.

“It is a small operation as far as the number of employees (four), but a large operation in the grand scheme of things.”

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