[beerandt]

One type of theft at choose and cut is often just cutting the top out of a much larger tree, and attempting to only pay for the size of what they cut.

People with 7-8' ceilings cut the top 6' out of a 12' tree bc they didn't like any of the younger trees.

[nradov]

The farm where I buy my Christmas trees charges the same flat price regardless of size.

[beerandt]

There are pros and cons to the different business models, but in this case, if you think of it as a matching/sorting type of problem, it's inefficient and wasteful, in a logistical/Nash equilibrium sort of way.

Which doesn't always mean it's the wrong way, from a business perspective. But if you're charging by height, it's leaving money on the table.