Posted on: Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Tree vendor flying in a few
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
Attention, Christmas tree shoppers: You may have another chance at getting a real tree this year.
Christmas tree vendor Mele Turner is bringing in about 70 to 100 more trees by air and will sell them Saturday morning at his tree lot in Market City Shopping Center.
The Douglas and Noble firs will be 4 to 6 feet.
The Douglas firs will probably cost around $85 to $95, to make up for the airfreight costs, Turner said. The Nobles will cost a bit more.
"I'm trying to accommodate people," Turner said yesterday. "My phone is ringing off the hook. ... There are so many people that just gotta have a tree. And, within reason, they're going to pay. They know that the airfreight — it costs more than the tree."
Christmas trees have suddenly become a rare commodity because at least some vendors, stung by last year's glut of trees, ordered fewer trees this season. Many stores and Christmas tree lots on O'ahu sold out last weekend and have turned away hundreds of disappointed potential customers.
Matson Navigation Co. and Horizon Lines both said they shipped fewer trees this year. Matson's final tree shipment was Dec. 5; Horizon's last shipment was last week.
Turner said that when he airfreighted additional Christmas trees about 10 years ago, people lined up and took numbers. The trees "were gone in an hour," he said.
He said that the sales on Saturday will be conducted on a first-come, first-served basis and that he is working on a system to keep the process orderly. "I don't want people fighting over trees," he said.
• E-mail us at hawaii@honoluluadvertiser.com if you know where there are Christmas trees for sale. Label the note "Trees for Sale."
• For information about Christmas tree vendor Mele Turner, call Forest Products at 389-9031 or 389-9047. Black Point resident Sue Thorndike hopes she will be able to buy one of Turner's trees. She and her husband usually wait until a couple of weeks before Christmas to buy a tree and never had a problem until this year.
"We were just shocked this morning," said Thorndike, who retired from working in the Senate minority research office. "It's weird that they all disappeared so quickly.
"We've always had a tree, and we can't quite imagine what Christmas would be like without one."
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-2470.
Turner said he doesn't want to take deposits because he doesn't want to deal with refunds if something happens to the trees en route here.
Know where there are trees?
