Death Comes to The Shopping Mall, Hurts Funeral Homes

Funeral Industry News July 29, 2010
CDFuneralNews

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Death Comes to The Shopping Mall, Hurts Funeral Homes

imageCasket stores have been popping up all over the country for the past few years. Out of all of the caskets stores I have been showed pictures or videos of, none were as impressive as this one.

The following video was posted on the CDsocial Network by member Nathan Smith. Nathan recently traveled home to Wichita, Kansas and recorded the following video from the local shopping mall.

Please watch the video below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

My opinion and thoughts are posted after the video.

I can’t think of a better place to put a casket store. Can you just think about the amount of traffic they are getting? I mean, the owner of the store has direct contact and influence on people who maybe thinking about their own death for the very first time. The visitors guidance on getting a casket it directly influenced by the owner of the casket store. This could be powerful for the store and bad for the funeral home.

Here is what I think: Why hasn’t a funeral home done this? Shouldn’t the local funeral home be the one who is trying to help people think about and plan for their own death? Obviously this type of store does not seem to taboo for people or the store would not be able to stay open.

Here is a comment made by the owner of the store on CDsocial.com:

People come to us asking questions about the industry in general…wanting to know who they can trust, do they have to do everything that the FD has told them. We tell them our own experiences and where they can find the answers for themselves. Our existence doesn’t have to bad for anyone, but you wouldn’t know that to hear it from the FDs. We have sent families to the funeral homes that we know excel in customer service and that listen to the families. This could actually be good for everyone concerned if we all worked toward taking care of people and what they want, not what we want them to have. There really is enough to go around!

So, think of how powerful it would be for a funeral home to lease a space in a local mall and display caskets, urns, and other merchandise available during the funeral arrangements. You wouldn’t sell the caskets for at need but use the casket display as a way to open the door and talk with people about their own death plans. This type of store could be a massive preneed driver!! Your preeneed person could have more interaction with people in one week from a store like this, then in 2 months of cold calls.

Think about it and share your thoughts below.

Video Source: CDsocial.com. Cdsocial is the first funeral industry social network for funeral professionals.