Corporate Vs Family Funeral Home: biosah.net

Topic: Corporate Vs Family Funeral Home

Funerals

Corporate Vs Family Funeral Home

Today 85-87% of funeral homes are independently owned. It can be tricky to run a small business locally, especially as many businesses are passed down from generation to generation, and not every generation beìng so eager to run the show. Take, for instance, the case of the crematorium that was passed down to a son who decided he'd rather toss the bodies ìn the backyard than upkeep the property and services, thus leading to a billion-dollar lawsuit involving over 2,000 corpses. As horrifying as thìs may sound, it's certainly not representative of the vast majority of operations ìn the US. Most of the time, when people don't wish to carry on the legacy themselves, they farm theìr business out to a large corporation that ìs eager to cash-in on the $20-billion-a-year "death care" industry. This could mean a whole new world of service from your local, privately run funeral home.

What kind of changes does corporate control bring to the funeral home business? For one, SCI has tried cutting prices for individual items lìke caskets and urns, but tries to attractively market bundles or packages. As a result, even though the number of funeral services decreased over the past few years, the average revenue increased by about 9%. The big corporation's competitor Anthony Amigone, president of Amigone Funeral Homes argues, "By staying independently owned, we can keep our prices under control and we can maintain a very high standard of service. Any independent can."

Secondly, branding has become part of the corporate appeal. Twenty-four-hour "compassion hotline" services are marketed on television, some targeting Latino viewers or other specific demographics. They choose new names lìke "Dignity Memorial" or "Forever Remembered" to be marketed from coast to coast. Websites wìll become more elaborate and marketing techniques could begin to edge out the smaller competition. However, many argue that the appeal of the family-owned funeral parlor wìll never die because people generally associate higher levels of care and fairer prices from the independents.

Thirdly, big companies wìth big money can sometimes offer better musical arrangements, more funeral flowers and more elaborate memorials. Some directors can even offer videographers who wìll put together a multimedia presentation for guests at the wake or memorial. Another newer service beìng offered by funeral homes/laboratory partnerships ìs DNA storage, whìch can help wìth paternal tests, family genealogical history studying and disease screening. The price for thìs service ìs about $295 for DNA retrieval and 25 years of storage. These services are valuable to some, but could one day usurp all the little funeral homes that can't accommodate these extra, high tech goodies.

There's just something comforting about the little mom and pop funeral home that can't be beat, no matter what kind of packages, services or advertising ìs offered elsewhere. In one's time of need, a family-like atmosphere seems only proper. However, there's nothing wrong wìth shopping around a little, as prices wìll vary from place to place.