Local Christmas tree lot opens today; expecting its biggest year

 

11/27/15 By Conrad Rowe

 

Merrill Family Christmas Trees, a business in providence, opened today for the season and is expecting to have its most productive year to date.  

 

James Merrill, the owner of Merrill Family Christmas Trees, said that each year, since opening in 1992, the profits have grown and he is expecting the trend to continue this season.

 

“I get 100 more trees each season than I got the season before,” Merrill said. “Each year I am able to sell at least 50 percent of the new trees but this year I am expecting to sell 80 percent or more.”

 

Merrill attributes the growing popularity of the tree lot to the unconventional advertising he does.

 

“We have a big red double-decker bus in front of our lot that you can see from the highway,” Merrill said. “I painted our name on it so it really draws the eye of people driving by.”

 

Merrill Family Christmas Trees has live reindeer that people can come and see for free and Merrill said that draws a lot of people in.

 

“We are a no pressure lot and a lot of people like that about us,” Merrill said. “We are not going to jump you and try to force you buy a Christmas tree.”

 

The beginning of the season is the busiest for the Merrill family.

 

“This is the busiest time of year for us,” said Dave Merrill, who runs the wholesale division of the business.

 

Merrill Family Christmas Trees is predicting it will sell 2,200 trees on the lot and wholesale 3,000.