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Nosy Neighbor: Who is running the Christmas tree market on Greenwich?
M. wrote in last week: “Do you know what the Christmas tree vendor situation in the neighborhood will be? Soho Trees, who ran the exorbitantly priced stand on Greenwich, looks to be skipping this season according to their website.”
As everyone knows by now, the trees are back on Greenwich as they are at Whole Foods as well. But M.’s question got me wondering. In my memory it was never Soho Trees (that guy is kind of famous) here at the park, but either way, it is now run by Greg’s Holiday Center, which pays $10,000 for the season. The workers there told me they are from New Hampshire, which seems as good a spot as any to score some conifers.
The Parks Department issues the permits and collects fees for tree vendors outside their properties, which go to the city’s General Fund. (Other vendors strike deals with private property owners.) And ours is no longer at the rates reported by The Post in 2015, when the concessionaire paid more than $35,000 to be at the park.
The Parks Department did mention that half its vendors from last year decided not to open due to pandemic-related issues.
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I’m the M in question! We haven’t bought our tree yet but are going to check the Greenwich and Chambers stand.
That said, I have a different memory – 4 or 5 years ago I really do think it was Soho Trees in that location. This Tribeca Citizen post seems to suggest something similar, as do the associated comments:
https://tribecacitizen.com/2016/12/05/seen-heard-shopping-for-a-christmas-tree/
I have no idea when it would have changed, but I’m happy to give someone different a try. The Soho Trees prices were brutal.
But did you see how much they were paying in fees? $35,000 is a lot of money. Add cost of transporting the trees, salaries, lodging… Maybe the prices weren’t so exorbitant after all.
Hello M, let us know how tree hunting goes. I’ve got ours at the “exorbitantly priced” Soho Tree main location the past couple of years and would like to try a new place this year :)
Thanks!
How about trying a local store – Morgan’s Market on Hudson & Reade.
Thanks
Morgan’s would be the last place on Earth I would spend my money in. The last time I was there was on Sept 12th, 2001. Price gauging in the aftermath of the day before. A curse on them.
Even allowing that 9/11 trauma can be enduring, it’s sad to see someone carry any offense for 19 years … and counting.
I stop at Morgan’s several times a week on my bike ride home from my office. The produce is generally top-notch and it’s amazing how many items this modest-size store can carry. Every employee is unfailingly kind, helpful and communicative. I leave with a smile on my face just about every time.
Now more than ever, Morgan’s feels, to me, like a rock and an oasis.
Amen. They are the last tree standing. We should be supporting them.
Charlie, who are you to say what “offense” can be held by someone and for how long? Nineteen years was a long time ago, yes. Is there a statute of limitations on principles? À chacun son goût, I say.
Gee, Loren, I simply said it was sad to see someone carry an offense for 19 years. And even if Morgan’s *was* price-gouging on Sept 12, 2001 — which I would find surprising, but so be it — wouldn’t being there for customers who needed things count for something?
The tree prices there are ridiculous! They wanted $60 for a table top Charlie Brown.
We wound up purchasing ours directly from a farm in New Hampshire (8 Ft Balsam Fir), and including shipping it was $140 total- $60 for Fedex/$80 for the tree.
I always thought the previous owner was Soho Trees as well, though we never purchased from there as their prices were exorbitant as well. My wife and I are both New Englanders originally, and probably should chop one down ourselves, but we are NY’ers now.
I’ve bought my tree on Greenwich every year and just checked my credit card statement – it was Soho Trees at least last year (think it was every year). While the tree was always beautiful, and they had some really unique varieties, I found they dried up too quickly for the high price (last one was $150, most expensive was ~$200). Yet I kept going back :)
Agree, Morgans Market is a gem. They practically created Tribeca. The were the first market downtown, struggled through thick and thin, and many local disasters. While every flees Tribeca they stand firm and provide quality products.
Always my favorite.
I have the skinny: according to the two treesmen, SOHO could not make it down for the delivery of the trees due to the pandemic. Greg’s is running it this year as a place card holder. The two men are workers from SOHO, who kept them on board as they know the clients well.
AND it is the same Greg’s as included in the article that I linked above.
We buy out tree from the vendor on Greenwich Street because they cut the tree so I can put it into my stand then onto my dolly right there – Morgan’s Market & Whole Foods don’t do that. Our 6 foot tree costs 90-110 plus 20 tip for the sawing for 110-130 total. To whoever says that’s too much money: besides we can afford it & it’s a once a year purchase so no big deal to u, OUR TREES FROM GREENWICH STREET LAST. We bought last year’s tree on December 21st, kept it for a little over a month & had barely any needles on the floor so we could’ve kept it well into February. It became more like a giant houseplant LOL.
We kept it through the first week pf this January. I was thinking of an earlier tree during a rougher, snowier winter.
Apropos of nothing,,
just glad these are being referred to as Christmas Trees and not Holiday Trees.
Put a lid on the politics with your “war on Christmas” nonsense & get over that Biden trounced Trump.
People can call the tree whatever they want, ok?
How is it political? Just telling what it should be. You don’t call a Menorah Holiday Menorah, do you? Or Diwali, Holiday Diwali?
Follow your handle name and X-Mas and Chill, bro, brah, self-righteous Tribecan indignation. Ho, Ho, Ho.
Last year I started buying from Walddie.com
7ft Fraser fir $149 with delivery. They also Balsam firs cheaper.And they stay alive till after Christmas. Before I was buying from neighborhood and the trees would die before Christmas.
I have never had a Greenwich Street tree stand die before Christmas. So it’s good luck for me but bad luck for you? You probably bought your trees from Whole Foods and/or Morgan’s Market who buy their trees wholesale. The Greenwich Street stand is run by actual professional tree growers or people who buy from them. Their trees & the WF/MM trees are like night & day. If you (must) buy a tree from WF/MM & want to minimize drawing a dead tree buy it on December 20, 21, or 22. The tree will be at its cheapest too since they want to sell as many trees as possible before 12/23-24.
I could never buy a tree online – so joyless. I love bringing my stand & dolly to the seller, watching a worker saw the tree to fit my stand, putting the tree in the stand, buying the tree with cash, tipping in cash & wheeling the tree back home. It’s a fun ritual.