Local Entrepreneur Sells Holiday Trees by the Branch

By Tom Jalana
for TJSN.com

Published: December 10, 2009

Local Entrepreneur Sells Holiday Trees by the Branch thumbnail

While sounds of Christmas bells and twinkling lights of white, red and green have surrounded the American shoppers much sooner than usual this year, one Palos Heights entrepreneur is looking to capitalize on current economic conditions by opening the very first Build-A-Tree in the United States.

“What better way to ‘go green’ and save some green at the same time?” said Ed Sochacki, founder of Build-A-Tree. “Most people know exactly what they want out of a [Christmas/Holiday] Tree, but Mother Nature tends to have her own ideas which don’t see eye-to-eye with the consumer. Our customers are the only ones that can claim they specifically picked the branches on their Holiday Tree.”

Sochacki says he came upon the idea for his seasonal operation when news broke that President Obama, on a whim, planned to rename the White House Christmas Tree a “Holiday Tree” to cover his ass with his liberal, non-Christian voting contingent. Sochacki says he felt that if it could be that easy for Obama to rename the evergreen, then reselling hacked-off, dying tree branches to those same voters should be a breeze.

“We are only two weeks into the season and I’m nearly sold out,” he said.

“I have a huge customer base.” said Sochacki. “Living on the outskirts of Chicago, the business has thrived due to its proximity to the tremendous number of environmentalists, honest politicians, Obama-backers, and bleeding-heart liberals. And, because we had the foresight to accept food stamps, we have a number of unemployed and homeless customers too.”

While the customers were sure to come a-calling, Sochacki admitted he was initially torn about hacking off branches from three 100-year old evergreens that lined his property, but felt much better once he decided to repackage the yard waste as an eco-friendly alternative to a live or artificial tree. “The $2.5 million in interest-free government stimulus money I qualified for by opening a green business helped too,” he said.

Before the tree-shopping season ends, Sochacki hopes his new business will realize a $400 profit from branch sales and an additional $250,000 from short-term, high-interest loans given to local government municipalities for social programs from the stimulus money he received.

Sochacki sells each tree at a $1.49 per branch, but offers a 20% discount and carbon-credit voucher for purchases of 40 branches or more. And Sochacki admits that while the needles on the tree branches will fall off much sooner than that of a freshly cut evergreen, he has a no-return policy. “You have to remember, these customers of mine are the same people that ushered in “hope” and “change” back in November of 2008 and now half of them want their vote back, but it’s too late. Do I feel I’m taking advantage of them?” he asked. “Not at all. I’m nurturing their inner child and helping them feel good about themselves. They are all real winners in my book.”

While things are looking rosey, Sochacki admits to one hardship. “I’m behind in getting my Holiday Cards out this year, but I’ll get to them as soon as I send Al Gore his recycled, customized, Holiday Wreath and thank you card.”

And for those Wall Street tycoons out there looking for an early Holiday gift, Sochacki said plans are in the works to take his Build-A-Tree business public with an IPO at the beginning of 2010. Happy Holidays!

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