Millennials have earned a reputation for loving consumer products that are local and artisanal — so why are they are buying so many plastic Christmas trees?
That is the question irking Tim O’Connor, the executive director of the Christmas Tree Promotion Board in Littleton, Colorado. To help capture more buyers, growers are positioning themselves as analogues to the local and organic food movement.
Real trees have all the things younger adults are drawn to, O’Connor said, touting authenticity, benefits to the environment and support for regional economies.
They have got their work cut out for them.
While almost 95 million US households are expected to display a Christmas tree this season, only 19 percent of those are expected to be real, according to a survey conducted by Nielsen for the American Christmas Tree Association that was released on Thursday.
While some houses display both types of trees, most will be putting up artificial trees, usually made from plastic and coming from factories sometimes located across the globe.
The tide could already be changing, said George Richardson, the co-owner of Richardson Farms in Spring Grove, Illinois, who is a fifth-generation farmer.
He plants 10,000 seedlings per year on his operation, where buyers can choose and cut their own tree.
“Real Christmas trees were immensely popular in ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and then the fake trees got in,” Richardson said. “For a while, people thought, this is so convenient, let’s do that. Now we’re finding out that maybe they’re not the healthiest, pristine thing we thought they were, and they’ll end up in a landfill.”
The best customers of real trees are families with children. Older adults from the Baby Boomer generation are becoming empty nesters, while millennials — a cohort of young people now aged about 18 to 35 — are on the cusp of starting families. That has left a gap for real trees, which have lost buyers as artificial trees gained.
However, the real tree industry has said there is potential to win big over the next decade as young families bloom.
Only 20 percent of millennials have young children, O’Connor said.
That leaves the lion’s share of the biggest generation — and their future Christmas traditions — still up for grabs.
O’Connor is also hoping to capture younger consumers’ interest in sustainable products to boost sales.
Real Christmas trees are farm-grown like a crop, not cut from a forest, he said.
They grow on grounds not suitable for higher-value crops, turning carbon dioxide into oxygen, and their roots hold soil in place. When they are cut, a new one is planted, and after being used, they can be recycled into mulch.
Still, artificial trees appeal to consumers looking for reusability and convenience, said Jami Warner, the Sacramento, California-based executive director of the American Christmas Tree Association, which promotes both the farm-grown and manufactured varieties.
It can be set up in minutes and there is no mess or watering involved.
Another hurdle for real trees: rising prices.
A real Christmas tree will probably cost about 10 percent more this year, compared with last year, said Doug Hundley, a spokesman for the National Christmas Tree Association, which represents growers.
Tree supplies are tight and demand is expected to be robust due to the healthy economy and signs that consumers are set to splurge this holiday.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last