Metro

Small-time Christmas tree vendors upset over bigger outlets stealing business

Now playing on street corners across the city: The Grinch Who Stole the Christmas Tree Business.

Small-time tree sellers say the growing trend of big-box stores peddling evergreens at cut-rate prices has trimmed their business — and isn’t even legal.

Diana Marmolejo, who hawks Yuletide greenery at 97th Street and Columbus Avenue, said her sales are down 30 percent since some of her once-loyal customers began buying at a nearby Whole Foods instead.

“Home Depot and Whole Foods –- they have a lot of business. They need to understand that the Christmas tree business in the city is a little bit different than wholesale items from China,” Marmolejo, 26, said.

Rob Bookman, a city-based lawyer who represents small businesses, said it’s illegal for retailers to sell or store trees indoors.

The FDNY sent him a letter acknowledging that the practice is against city law because of fire hazards, and promised to “address the alleged violation as part of its…holiday public education and code enforcement efforts.”

Marmolejo, who’s from Florida, said her family-owned Evergreen East Co-op trucks trees north to the Big Apple from “mom-and-pop” farms down South.

This year, their trees are from North Carolina, and arrive on an as-needed basis within 48 hours after being cut down.

The best-seller is the Fraser Fir, with a 7- to 8-footer going for between $70 and $140, depending on “how full and beautiful it is,” she said.

Across the street, the Whole Foods Market was selling 7- to 8-foot trees outside for between $50 and $120 each.

Newly engaged Jessica Berta, 30, and fiance Tom Torre, 31, checked out Whole Foods but decided to buy their first tree together from Marmolejo.

“I appreciate the smaller guys at the corner. This is Christmas. This is the holidays. If everybody buys at Whole Foods these guys are not going to be around anymore,” said Torre.

But for another engaged couple, Rachel Hardin and Steve Fragele, price made all the difference, and they bought a $50 Douglas Fir from Whole Foods.

“The same tree was $90 across the street,” said Fragele, 28.

Hardin added: “This just feels convenient. It’s kind of silly — we live on the Upper West Side and buy our tree from Whole Foods. We’re yuppies.”

A Home Depot spokesman, Stephen Holmes, said the hardware giant was unaware of the city law regarding indoor tree sales before being contacted by The Post, and that workers were “breaking down” an illegal display inside its West 23rd Street store.

A spokeswoman for Whole Foods’s Northeast operations didn’t return requests for comment.