Costco, Walmart can save you money on a Casket-YourFuneralGuy

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One of the Ways to save money on a funeral is to reduce the Casket expense. Obtain your Casket from a Third party or on the internet. Depending on the funeral home the markup on the casket  markup is  between 100 and 500 %. I remember the first time i heard that as a Funeral apprentice, at an elite funeral home in the Washington DC Area. It made me uncomfortable then and it  is disconcerting  to think i was once taking advantage of the funeral consumer in this manner.

Third party caskets can save you lots of money on a funeral. Many times you can obtain the same or similar casket you find at the funeral home.

There are also lower cost Funeral Homes that sell caskets just a little over cost.They do not price gouge on Caskets  These Folks should not be overlooked because often they go out of their way to help you save on Funeral Cost. Even in today’s economy the low cost funeral home may be hard to find.  But the good news is that “today” more and more Funeral directors are willing to negotiate down the price of a Funeral.

Costco and Walmart are some of the main players in today’s market giving the funeral industry a hard time on casket and funeral cost.

Beyond sudden and unexpected outbreaks of longevity, the funeral industry has plenty of challenges. Cremations have been growing in popularity, and they’re less expensive than traditional burials. Companies such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Costco (Nasdaq: COST) have also found a new and potentially powerful revenue stream by selling inexpensive caskets online. (Lest anyone try to tell you otherwise, funeral homes are required to accept and work with third-party caskets.)

via www.themoneytimes.com

Funeral industry, Funeral News, Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Your Funeral Guy is not affiliated with Costco or Wal mart

Big Three Casket Companies being sued-Your Funeral Guy

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The big three Casket Companies are being sued, for market manipulation. From my perspective this is has been going on for decades. A lawsuit will be brought before a judge in Houston this week on this matter.

The big three casket company sales have already been crippled by the rise of cremation.

There are secret in agreements in place between one of the three big casket Companies and funeral homes… but they will not admit to it generally only in specific cases.

This is a hot topic in the funeral business. and funeral homes are very reluctant to talk about their agreements with the casket makers.

April Dembosky: To get around current FTC rules, the top three casket companies in the country wrote new internal distribution policies. They said they would sell caskets to anyone, but they would only deliver them to funeral homes. Consumer attorney Gordon Schnell says that allowed these companies to dominate 70 percent of the casket market.

Gordon Schnell: The defendants along with other funeral homes have entered into a conspiracy to restrict competition from discount casket sellers so they can keep their casket pricing artificially high.

via marketplace.publicradio.org

Now  a casket can be obtained for a reasonable funeral cost  by ordering it on the Internet, Walmart and Costco both sell caskets.

If you Google Caskets the leading Casket Maker Batesville comes up  along with a leading online seller Star Legacy Caskets.

The big three casket companies are Batesville, York and Aurora.

Funeral Industry, Funeral news, Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy

IKEA offering Do It Yourself Caskets|Your Funeral Guy

IKEA is now offering do it yourself Caskets.  IKEA is joining the Trendsetters of WalMart, Costco and Amazon.com. The Do it Yourself Casket is nothing new. Amazon.com has been selling  one for several years.

It is pretty much common knowledge that the parts for a wooden coffin go for around $200. Priced at $400, The retailer is making less than $100% profit when you take into account the paint Job

“it was only a matter of time before IKEA ventured into coffins. Artist Joe Scanlan has created simple coffins for $15,000—or a book for $27.50 that tells you how to make your own coffin from IKEA parts for less than $400.

Joe Scanlan’s artist statement advocates staging death in times of personal turmoil or rebirth like changing careers.

Whether natural selection, death with dignity, or suicide, intimations of death have gotten artists through many a hard night. Staging death is also an effective way to express a wish, foment resistance, or change careers. You can enjoy the same piece of mind by investing in your eventual demise. Here at Things That Fall we offer three different burial options. Custom is an elegant and unique vessel crafted in Australia entirely from Tasmanian Blackwood and shipped to you. via www.trendhunter.com”

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

WalMart, Amazon.com Selling caskets still has Funeral Homes Concerned-YourFuneralGuy

It has been over 6 months since WalMart has been selling caskets online and the Funeral Industry is still quite worried.

Costco and Amazon.com also have the  the industry worried. Some Funeral Homes are adjusting many are not.

The continued emphasis on Funeral personalization may not be enough to overcome the public’ss appetite for cremation in funeral arrangements.

24hourCasket.com

With Wal-Mart, Costco, even Amazon (through 24HourCaskets.com) now offering items such as caskets and funeral urns, the industry has had to adapt, placing an increased emphasis on service and personalization.

And a sector once considered sheltered if not immune from economic pressures hasn’t escaped the effects of the recession. Consumers are more cost-conscious, and death rates have been static. In fact, some studies show that death rates tend to decline during recessions; the National Funeral Directors Association says the rate fell to 7.9 per 1,000 population in 2009 compared with 8.1 in 2008.

via www.arkansasbusiness.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

VIDEO: Consumers RIP: It’s OK To buy Casket From Walmart|YourFuneralGuy

Consumers all across the land can now rest in peace. A Funeral Director has stated that it is OK to buy your casket at Walmart online.
However the Funeral Director in the video displays his displeasure with the shipper of the Walmart, Star Legacy Casket
FED EX. Update 7/25/10: The Funeral director who posted the video on You Tube made the video private.

THis Video goes beyond just showing what to expect, and does put FED EX in a bad light, for not allowing tail gate off loading assistance, something the video does not define. It is unreasonable for Fed EX to accommodate funeral home(or any receiver) delivery requests or restrictions without extra charge, The Video does not reveal the conversation with Fed Ex on the phone so to point a finger at them without further detail is a tad bit unfair to the shipper-Fed Ex

A Batesville casket is cleverly shown in the video is a subtle advertisement for the world’s largest casket maker. .

Walmart starting to sell caskets on line shook the funeral world last October and created an internet explosion of commentary, jokes on Wamart selling Caskets.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral Blog by R Brian Burkhardt Your Funeral Guy

FTC and the disposal of third party Casket packaging |Your Funeral Guy

FTC has issued some information on Caskets from third parties like Walmart and Costco

One of the way Funeral directors have tried to get around NOT BEING ABLE TO CHARGE families and consumers for third party Caskets in the USA is to charge the Consumer for Packaging disposal. Costco and Walmart distributing caskets have upset funeral directors so much that the National Funeral Directors Association, the NFDA had a board member recently testifiy before Congress on third party casket.

The Chief Counsel of the National Funeral Directors Association recently examined an Opinion letter  issued by the FTC on third Party caskets. The lawyer for the NFDA , advises funeral directors and funeral home owners what they can and cannot do when third party caskets are purchased.

What all this indicates is that the Funeral Industry is doing all it can to squeeze evey dollar out of the funeral family, the funeral consumer. If you obtain a third party casket which I recommend you do, do not pay for packaging disposal.

Universal Casket Company, which supplies the caskets that are sold by Costco, recently sought guidance from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff about the delivery of third-party caskets to funeral homes. In response to that request, FTC Funeral Rule Coordinator Craig Tregillus issued an opinion letter on April 19, 2010 that addressed several important issues, including whether funeral homes must assist in unloading third-party caskets from delivery trucks and the disposal of packing materials. Highlights from the opinion include the following:

“Disposal of Packaging. In a footnote in the Staff Advisory Opinion, Mr. Tregillus provides guidance on the increasingly troublesome issue of third-party casket packaging. Funeral homes have reported that casket shipments that originate from Costco and Wal-Mart often are packaged in crates which require the funeral home to incur labor and disposal cost. The FTC Staff Advisory Opinion indicates that while funeral homes may not charge a consumer for the cost of disposing of the packaging, the Funeral Rule does not prevent a funeral provider from requiring that all casket suppliers take any casket packaging with them and dispose of it after a delivery. In other words, as long as the funeral home requires casket wholesalers from which it purchases caskets to dispose of casket packaging materials, it may also impose the same requirement on third-party casket shippers delivering caskets to the funeral home.”via www.nfda.org

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.

Charging for Disposal for packaging is simply funeral home anger for purchasing a casket from a third party.

Aurora Casket Company Goes Outside The Casket Sale For the Sale|YourFuneralGuy

Funeral Industry Decline:Casket Companies going outside the casket sale for the sale.

Many large “Casket” companies in the Funeral Industry are going outside the “Casket Sale”  for the sale. Hillenbrand Inc the parent of Batesville Casket Company is the primary example well written about here.   This is even true of the privately held companies Like Aurora Casket Company- who is making  extra money through the sale of urns and support services.

If one does not make adjustments when your industry is dying, your business will die too. There is one problem with this thinking. Not everyone in the biz can sell urns, webcasting,  and consulting, and support services. All cannot profit from the same strategy no matter what the hype or who gives it.

First it was the rise in cremations. Now Bill Backman III and his clients at Aurora Casket Co. Inc. are competing with mass retailers like Wal-Mart, Costco and even Amazon.com for casket sales.

You would think trends like these would be difficult to deal with for the nation’s largest, privately held casket manufacturer, but it’s all about how you approach it.

Backman has embraced the climb in cremations and spun the big-box competition to its advantage by not only supplying a product but spotlighting the additional support services it and its clients offer.

via www.sbnonline.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral blog by R. Brian Burkhardt Your Funeral Guy

Disclaimer:Your Funeral Guy has no affiliation or fiduciary relationship relationship Aurora Casket Company. He does not recommend use of this company in Funeral Arrangements. He does not “NOT” recommend the use  of Aurora Casket Company. Funeral arrangements are a personal and important decision.

US Funeral Directors want Non Traditional Sellers regulated-Your Funeral Guy

The National Funeral Directors Association NFDA wants non traditional sellers regulated-They even went as far as to name Walmart and Amazon.com. Walmart and Amazon are selling Caskets online.

This was all done in testimony before Congress on January 27th 2009 by the NFDA executive treasurer, Randall L Earl. The hearing was on the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act  Initiated by Congressman Bobby Rush.

Earl is a controversial figure named in Lawsuits and investigations in the Illinois Funeral Directors Association  IFDA Trust Ponzi Scheme. In Spite of these allegations he continues to serve on the Executive Board.

The Funeral Industry in the United States is in decline because of the rise of non traditional alternative funeral

In his testimony, Earl stated: “NFDA believes this bill outlines for the FTC a rule that we have long argued was necessary, given a dramatically changed marketplace, with new and non-traditional sellers offering many more choices for consumers to purchase funeral or burial goods or services, and the risks they take in dealing with them in a lightly or even unregulated environment.”-Via NFDA Facebook Notes

The fact that the traditional funeral guys are in an uproar over nontraditional funerals is good for the funeral consumer.

Non traditional funerals mean less than the average cost of a funeral for consumers,

The entire Funeral industry is trending to the lower cost funeral.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral Blog by your Funeral Guy

The Bereaved Consumers Bill Of Rights Act came about because of the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal

Funeral Industry Chasing Costco, Walmart, Internet Caskets-Your Funeral Guy

Connecting Directors is a mouthpiece for the traditional funeral industry

Connectingdirectors.com the Traditional Funeral Industry membership site  is chasing Internet, Costco, Walmart, and  Third Party Caskets.

Instead of the usual regurgitation of title and  news articles found of the internet.  the title was changed by the Webmaster displaying the sites bias against third party caskets.(Caskets from Walmart, Costco, etc.) Read more on the Costco casket mistake here.

Costco Ships Your Mom’s Casket To Houston, But The Funeral Is In New Jersey

Title Changed to

Costco Delivers Casket to Wrong Funeral Home, Wrong State!

Funeral Industry|Funeral | Funeral News blog by Your Funeral Guy

Source on Costco Casket mistake  http://con.st/10001200 |

Connecting Directors Pic from the old connecting directors.com

Funeral Industry Site says Funeral Scandal Up in 2009-YourFuneralGuy

Funeral Scandal will continue an grow in 2010

ConnectingDirectors.com agrees with me that 2009  was the year  of the Funeral Scandal. However in the forums the webmaster insisted That Scandal Is caused by a few bad apples who disgrace the Funeral Industry.  This is funeral industry myth about Funeral Scandal. Service Corporation International itself  Leader The Funeral Industry Scandal itself amounts to more than  a few bad apples.

ConnectingDirectors.Com and many industry Old timers insist that the media(press) sensationalize scandal because their business is death. The exact opposite is true the press and the media are not inclined to report Scandal because they rely on the paid obituary from the the Funeral Director for money. In Connecting Directors case and the Newspapers it is also paid advertising  from the  funeral home and the industry that fuels lack of honesty.

This is all covered in Your Funeral Guys  Funeral book “Rest in Peace.”  Naively hoping there will be less funeral scandal in 2010 than 2009 is unrealistic

“SCI, Walmart, and Batesville Lead List of Top 10 Funeral Industry Stories of 2009

2009 wasn’t exactly a picture perfect year for the funeral industry. Marred by scandal after scandal, most press that was given to the industry was negative. Lets hope the 2010 can be a better year.” via ConnectingDirectors.Com

For economic reasons alone, Funeral Scandal will increase in 2010.

Funeral Industry| Funeral  News| Funeral Blog