THEY were stocked up in their thousands ahead of the Christmas rush – with shoppers asked to pay £25 a go.
But now Southampton’s giant home products store IKEA has slashed the price of their Christmas trees to just £1 – a staggering 96 per cent discount.
The city’s outlet ordered thousands of real Nordmann Fir Christmas trees, but had to drop the price from £25.
The price tag proved too steep for many customers and the store cut it to £5 before reducing it again to just £1.
IKEA have sold artificial trees in the past, but this is the first year that the Swedish company have decided to sell real trees.
One shopper said: “There were rows and rows of trees – I was spoilt for choice.
“I left it late to buy my Christmas tree this year and I thought I’d struggle to find one.
“But I’m glad I did leave it so late as you’ll be lucky to find a tree for less than £1.
“In a way I wish I’d waited another couple of days – they might have paid me to take one away!
“When we went outside to get a taxi to take us home with the tree, we told the taxi driver how much it had cost.
“He was so stunned he stopped the car and walked down the rank to tell all the other drivers about the deal.”
Gary Pearce, IKEA Southampton store manager, has said the firm simply wanted to give customers “a very special offer on our gorgeous Christmas trees” in the final week before Christmas.
Bosses at Hampshire retail giant B&Q and staff at the Forestry Commission have reported no slow up in demand for trees in the run up to Christmas.
A spokesman from B&Q said the firm expected to shift 300,000 trees this year – the same as 2011 – with prices ranging from £7.98 for a small Norway Spruce up to £44.98 for a large non-drop Nordmann Fir.
The Forestry Commission’s New Forest Recreation manager Gary North said trees at Brockenhurst’s New Park and Ringwood’s Moors Valley Country Park were set to sell out such was the popularity this year with prices ranging from £20 to £48.
Last month consumer group Which? released figures that revealed fewer than one in five homes (18 per cent) will have a real tree this Christmas.
Some people may be put off by the cost - in some areas a Nordmann Fir can set you back as much as £55 for a 6ft tree.
Nordmann Firs arrived in the UK during the 1990s and became the most popular tree in Britain because of their non-drop needles.
But over four in five people have chosen to have an artificial tree this year.