Month: November 2016

Before you know it, I’ll be posting the “here’s where to recycle Christmas trees” post (usually in Crozet Park). For now, here’s a list of some of the places in and around Crozet to get a Christmas tree.

My post from 2011 is mostly still accurate, but a few links are dead, so at a friend’s/client’s request, here is an list of places to get Christmas trees in and around Crozet. (Thanks to the Facebook & RealCrozetVA Twitter friends!)

Pick your own + pre-cut Christmas trees

• Ralph’s Christmas Trees in Nelson County – we went here for years; it’s wonderful, and you can stop at any of the breweries along the Brew Ridge Trail to make it a full day trip.
• Skylark Christmas Tree Farm in Nelson
• Long Meadow Tree Farm in Waynesboro
• Crozet – Boy Scouts in Old Trail and in Great Valu shopping center (we’ve gotten ours from the Boy Scouts for the past few years)
• Ivy Corner Store, who apparently keep theirs in water, so they last longer (and are expensive)
• Ivy Nursery
• An aggregated list of where to get Christmas trees in and around Charlottesville.
• Waynesboro Garden Center
• “If you get it from Gladden Fields in Red Hill then you can show your support for a landowner helping protect one of Albemarle’s most spectacular wetlands.”

(list pulled from my post at RealCentralVA)

Busy day in Crozet!

Waiting for confirmation from 2nd source; believed to be true. https://t.co/4FpXWNTGVQ

— realcrozetva (@realcrozetva) November 15, 2016

Great Valu in Crozet has been purchased by the owners of the Crozet Shopping Center and the owner of @MarketStMarket https://t.co/WxvEqIB7KC

— Allison Wrabel (@craftypanda) November 15, 2016

From Allison Wrabel’s story (make sure to click through and read the whole thing)

General Manager Jean Wagner is retiring at the end of the year, according to a press release.

The new team is taking over operations of the store immediately, but Wagner will be working alongside them until the end of the year, according to the release.

Update 16 November 2016 – Great story at the Crozet Gazette. (read the whole thing)

He’s already decided some changes on for the Great Valu. “We’re going to add a deli and a bakery and do more with produce. We’ll try fresh seafood and see if people are receptive. We’ll expand the organic section. To me this is a lot of space.” The Great Valu has 14,000 square feet total with 10,000 sq/ft in the selling area and the remainder in storerooms and work areas.

“What makes a store nice is customer service,” Strumlauf said. “Really knowing the customer. Nobody knows better what direction a store should go than the customers. I’m going to be spending a whole lot of time here through the holidays. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. I don’t want to take away a single thing the store has. I want to remerchandise some things.” He gave as an example the possibility of moving some drink machines. “I don’t want to take a great store and get arrogant about changing things. I want the first thing people see when they walk in to be something fresh. It sets the whole tone for the store. That’s the direction. I want it to be a really nice place to shop. I want the people in Ivy to come here.

See sign advertising jobs, stop to take picture, meet Justin, the proprietor of Smoked BBQ, opening soon in Piedmont Place.

When are they opening? Soon.

Stopped in to meet Justin at Smoked BBQ. Can't wait for them to open. #crozet

A video posted by RealCrozetVa (Jim Duncan) (@realcrozetva) on Nov 11, 2016 at 8:19am PST