GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — A West Michigan business that sells paddle boards has come up with a new way to generate income during the winter months when sales are usually down.
Paddle North, located at 1048 Wealthy Street SE in Grand Rapids, has opened up a pop-up shop selling real Christmas trees for the holiday season.
"This is the first time we've ever attempted to do this," said Isaac Mogck, Sales Director for Paddle North, which has been in business for the last couple of years.
Mogck said that as a business that sells paddleboards, business slows down in the wintertime. He said his grandfather who he looked up to owned a Dairy Queen in Illinois when he was a child and would sell Christmas trees during the off-season.
"I was just a little kid at that time but to see that and to see kind of the attitudes of people on the happiness that that brought people was super exciting," Mogck said. "So I wanted to try to recreate that kind of in our local community."
The business is called Z's Trees, located in the busy Wealthy Street corridor. Mogck said they set up the tree shop the day before Thanksgiving and opened for their first day of business on Friday.
"So a huge part of the draw is the convenience factor, this is a very residential area," he said.
"We've already sold a few trees," he said. "The first person I actually sold a tree to was a neighbor who walked down the street with his daughter, they had never purchased a Christmas tree before," Mogck said. "They walked down and pick one up and then walk right home, so that was a pretty cool moment just to have that first tree be just one of the local neighbors."
Mogck said the lot was sitting vacant outside his store and he thought it would be a great option for people in the Grand Rapids area looking for a real Christmas tree.
"I haven't seen anyone selling crazy Christmas trees within the local [Grand Rapids] area community," he said.
Paddle North partnered with Bosch's Country View Nursery Christmas Tree Farm in Allendale to make this happen.
Mogck says since this is the first year doing this, they did not go too crazy with the amount of trees.
"We're kind of just testing the market, seeing if there is a need in the community for something like this. And then hopefully next year, it can grow bigger," he said.
If you purchase a Christmas tree from Z's, you get a 10% off coupon for anything inside Paddle North.
Prices for the trees vary be size and range from between $40 and $100 each. Mogck said they are happy to help you load it and strap it to your car after your purchase of a tree.
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