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Consumer advocates want more competition in casket market
Caskets at a funeral.
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TEXT OF STORY
Bill Radke: Until the 1980s, a funeral home was the only place you could buy a casket. The Federal Trade Commission has since tried to allow more competition, but consumer advocates say the agency hasn't done enough. They've sued the three biggest casket companies. Reporter April Dembosky says the case goes before a federal judge in Houston this week.
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.
Attorneys for the casket companies refused to comment on the record. But Mark Allen from the Casket and Funeral Supply Association of America insists theres plenty of competition in his industry.
Mark Allen: I'm contacted every week by a new upstart company thats trying to get some advice for getting started in this industry.
And thats getting harder these days as more people choose cremation. No burial, no need for a fancy casket.
I'm April Dembosky for Marketplace.
The big three casket company sales have already been crippled by the rise of cremation.....
Online casket sales are also eating away at Funeral Home casket sales.
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 as consumers are demanding to pay less in funeral cost.
Your Funeral Guy, funeral director, author, blogger
For anyone who heard this story on the air this morning, it ended with a brief clip of what seemed to be instrumental music. For those of you who are not fans of the band Death Cab for Cutie, the music is from a song called "I Will Follow You Into the Dark."
The chorus goes like this:
"If Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied,
and illuminate the "no"s on their vacancy signs.
If there's no one beside you, when your soul departs,
Then I will follow you into the dark."
Yes, someone at marketplace chose a song about death, from a band with death in the name, for a story about caskets. Kudos Marketplace; you've got me listening very closely.
One of the things that have protected the casket companies and have kept them in good graces with funeral directors is their commitment to only sell to funeral homes. This could really be crippling for the big 3 casket companies? http://www.connectingdirectors.com http://cdsocial.com/cdsocial-network
