Mortuary Muse

Mortuary school curriculums, obituary headaches and online discounters selling caskets have taken up a lot of space in the industry publications and online comments lately. Change, lack of change and/or fear of change in the preceding categories furnishes lots of fodder for the experts, pundits and benchwarmers to feed on —self included.

It seemed to me that a consensus of colleagues writing to one journal were of the opinion that mortuary schools were doing a good job of preparing students to pass licensing exams. They just aren't’ preparing them very well for the real world of funeral service. Students should also have learned a little more about funeral service before they spent time and money on funeral service education.

In previous issues we expressed concern that poor body presentation may contribute to the rising cremation and no services trend. We also questioned the reasons behind a perceived increase in poor body presentation. Melissa Johnson Williams, CFSP, Executive Director of the American Society of Embalmers and Steve Palmer, Westcott Funeral Home, Cottonwood, Arizona both responded with thoughtful commentary (see The Dead Beat, Vol. 10, Issue 1, Late Spring ‘09). Articles by these two professionals have appeared many times in funeral service publications.

The same questions about poor body presentation were also presented to the department heads of more than a dozen mortuary schools and college programs. None replied. I guess they feel body presentation is a moot point—or that I am.

Several letters and columns circulated have discussed the pitfalls of obituary writing. There has been criticism of Legacy.com for making money off of funeral home’s labors and information gathering. A retired director in Florida thought obituaries would be better handled by the families with the funeral directors providing the newspaper contact information without having to hassle deadline and editing along with the possibility of missing survivors. Others have complained about lengthy obits becoming the actual funeral service with the funeral home handling minimal services. Another industry writer complained on his blog about a journal refusing to print his piece about the need for large life history obituaries resulting in additional comments in the journal’s letters section and remarks from the publisher. Most funeral directors we have spoken to plan to continue to assist families with obituary writing and placement. A good idea since online discount casket sellers have not yet put in an obituary department.

The big discount store’s funeral merchandise website raises some interesting questions. Is their line of pretty much mainstream—18 gauge steel casket retail prices uncomfortably close to a lot of funeral home’s wholesale costs??? Offering credit terms??? The discounter buys the caskets from Star Legacy Funeral Network. Rick Obadiah, CEO, insists the caskets are American-made, but would not disclose the manufacturer???? In an interview with Funeral Monitor, Obadiah said they would also welcome funeral home business. The caskets are delivered by Fed-Ex.

I wonder how a casket manufacturer’s margin would be sufficient to allow a distribution system to operate at a profit for the amount that allows a discount retailer to sell at the price points they demand. Will the discounter ultimately set the manufacturer’s price, or look overseas, as happened in the soft good market? Perhaps casket company margins have been greater than we thought?

At least when you shop prices online they can’t throw you out of the store. Oh, by the way, have they made provisions for oversized caskets?

About the Author:

Lowell Pugh has funeral director and embalmer licenses in Missouri and Texas and continues the operation of the 105-year-old family funeral home. He is publisher of The Dead Beat which began in 1999. He can be contacted at The Dead Beat address.