Bargain pine boxes

American Demographics, Sept, 1996 by Tim Cavanaugh

Many families demand reasonably priced funeral arrangements, and providers are offering discounted products and services.

They say you can't take with you. But that doesn't mean you have to spend it all when you go. Americans are looking for ways to pay their respects to loved ones without blowing their inheritance or going into debt. In the past, that was difficult, since comparison shopping for funeral goods and services was virtually impossible. Now bereaved families can take advantage of prepaid and prearranged funerals, discount funeral homes, and even factory-direct casket stores.

Service Corporation International (SCI), the nation's largest funeral-home operator, has a new format that targets the price-conscious consumer. "There is a segment of the population that for one reason or another is price-sensitive, and that's fine,' says William Barrett, spokesmen for SCI. "We realized we could serve that segment of the population by designing a facility that meets their needs."

Called Family Funeral Care, the new format is a scaled-down version of a traditional funeral home. It has a small selection of caskets and no limousines on site. "There's a very limited showroom of five or six caskets there," Barrett says. "The main display for merchandise is done on a computer screen. That saves us the cost of carrying a large inventory, and the space in which to keep a large selection." SCI has 15 Family Funeral Care homes, and the number is growing each year. "You can go in there and get services for anywhere from 50 percent to 60 percent of the cost at one of our larger facilities," Barrett says.

                       The High Cost of Dying

The cost of maintaining burial sites has more than doubled for older
middle-aged householders.

(average household spending in constant 1994 dollars for households
that spent anything on funerals, cemetery lots, vaults, or
maintenance fees, by age of householder)

                                                            percent
                                                  1986       change
                                        1994    (in 94 $)   1986-94

FUNERAL EXPENSES
All households                         $2,457      $2,644      -7.1%
  Under age 25                            304       2,340     -87.0
  25 to 34                                780         693      12.6
  35 to 44                              1,843       1,622      13.6
  45 to 54                              2,889       3,033      -4.7
  55 to 64                              3,140       2,940       6.8
  65 and older                          2,801       3,579     -21.7

CEMETERY LOTS, VAULTS, MAINTENANCE
FEES
All households                         $1,274      $1,106      15.2%
  Under age 25                            956         927       3.1
  25 to 34                                698         771      -9.5
  35 to 44                              1,371       1,481      -7.4
  45 to 54                                882       1,090     -19.1
  55 to 64                              1,793         872     105.6
  65 and older                          1,243       1,244       0.0

Source: Consumer Expenditure Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics