Then fly to federal court!
Evergreen East, a Wisconsin-based Christmas tree cooperative that calls itself “New York’s Best Christmas Tree SellerHome Depot, Whole Foods and their suppliers allege that last year big Apple tree buyers were scammed by labeling cheap Canadian balsam fires as Cadillac, a valuable Fraser Fire-conifer.
Frasers are famous for their two-tone color of needles, with a dark green on the top at the bottom of the silver.
A Manhattan federal court complaint alleges that retailers “sold countless thousands of balsam fir trees during the 2019 Christmas season, which they knowingly planted and misrepresented as Fraser fir trees.”
Frawers are sold at 9,179 for 6-footers and 9,699 for 12-footers by Evergreen’s Mom-and-Shop shop clients on the sidewalks of Manhattan.
Fugazi Fires, sold by major retailers – which come from North Carolina-based supplier Bottomly Evergreen – start at just $ 80 for a 6-footer, said Kevin Hammer, president of Evergreen East.
He said fictional fires crippled the competition – and insecure tree shoppers cheated.
“I have been doing this for 47 years. We have no pressure on Bottomly’s ass, “Hammers of the Bensonhurst descent told The Post. “We are a cooperative that retails trees in New York City since 1974.”
Hammer said New Yorkers want what they pay for.
“Home Depot is not a canal street where you buy fake Gucci bags. People go there and see a tree from Canada and [don’t realize] It’s a second or third rate, “he said.
He also told the Post that even corrupt Christmas wholesalers harvest trees before they do and often ship from Canada to North Carolina so they can incorrectly tag them in Carolina-grown.
Hammer says his trees are a variety of high-quality Fraser, and he’s actually grown in North Carolina – and this shows a more valuable effect.
“You pay for Gucci bags – and you’re getting Gucci bags!” He said.
Botamly Evergreen boasts that its farms are located “in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and the western part of Virginia” and has provided “top-quality Fraser fir Christmas trees” since they opened in 1990.
But the complaint claims that Bottmalley imported 100,000 or more Canadian balsams in 2019 “and laundered the tree through its retail partners. Defendants were informed that they were labeling, marketing, advertising and selling balsam fir trees. There were those who were wrongly assigned to Fraser Fir. “
Hammer Post claimed that the boat made the Home Depot and Whole Foods an “ally of the scam.”
The lawsuit, filed in January, states that on December 16, 2019, Home Depot was “notified in writing that it was selling a bottled Christmas tree with the wrong label.”
Home Improvement Titan adds Firm Fraud, Home Depot “no quick fix” “The sale of fake trees continued for days, and possibly throughout the selling season.”
Evergreen has struggled in recent years to secure an adequate supply of high-quality Fraser fir trees and, due to the scarcity of those trees, had to pay a premium to them, leading to a significant drop in its profits, the lawsuit said.
The “Willful False Advertising” claim demands indefinite compensation, attorney’s fees and defendants “they account for every Christmas tree sold in 2019 or label it as Fraser Fir.” Evergreen wants whatever profit is made, “for every tree sold that the defendants could not prove was really a Fraser fir.”
Home Depot corporate spokeswoman Margaret Waters-Smith called Christmas curfew “a different labeling error.” “Once we became aware of that, we worked with the supplier to verify proper tagging on future deliveries,” he said.
Advocates for Whole Foods and Bott Tomly have filed for dismissal, essentially saying consumers will not be able to see the forest from the Christmas trees. They argued that the complaint “fails to prove that” the deliberate misdirection of the tree affected the people’s purchasing decision in any way. “
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