RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — While thousands of people were out shopping on Black Friday, some Triangle families were shopping for one specific thing: a Christmas tree.
“The kids are great, we usually have little cookies or hot apple cider for them, and so the kids are fun, they’re waiting for Santa Claus,” Brad Barick, the owner of Back Achers Christmas Tree Farm in Raleigh, said.
The farm has been in his family for decades.
“My dad started planting trees in 1978, he started selling trees in 1983, so we’re bumping up on 40 years,” Barick said.
This year, though, things are different. Namely, the price tags on the trees.
“It’s almost embarrassing,” Barick said. “I mean the prices this past year in the mountains, just my wholesale cost went up by 20 percent.”
The price you pay for a tree includes all the work that goes into growing the tree.
“Everything has gone up, I mean the labor costs have gone up, the fuel costs have gone up, transportation costs obviously have gone up,” Barick said.
He says a tree that cost him around $100 this year would have cost around $50 just a few years ago. Despite that, he says the heavier price tag isn’t stopping families from decking the halls.
“We opened up on the 19th, and I had trees that were up to 13, actually 14 feet tall, and those blew out of here last weekend,” he said.
The good news: Barick says the inventory of trees between six and nine feet is plentiful. Then once all of those trees are set up in their new homes for the holidays, preparations for next year kick off.