F.O.X. Do you remember Fox Books? You've Got Mail was a romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Tom Hank's character was an owner of a large, big box, book retailer. Meg Ryan was a small, independently owned, book shop owner who had lived in the area for years. Fox books moved in and put them out of business. Home Depot appears to be trying to doing the same thing to Burch Trees. Burch Trees has been around for years selling Christmas trees, personally I have bought my last four trees from them and have loved them. However Home Depot managers at the Riverdale store, have decided the stiff competition from Burch Trees needs to be squashed and have now resorted to slander and dirty marketing to convince people to leave Burch Trees and come to Home Depot for the Christmas tree. They are claiming Burch Trees is selling sub-par trees that were picked months ago and kept in ponds, essentially making the trees worthless. The truth is the trees are cut fresh just before Thanksgiving and then shipped directly to Burch Trees making them fresh. I am amazed at how horrible Home Depot has handled this situation and they deserve to lose business.
The Standard Examiner has a nice article on this and I challenge all of us to go to Burch Trees this year and avoid Home Depot.