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Walmart Begins Selling Caskets and Urns Online

Submitted by: Ray @ Tip Hero  10/28/2009 10:40 PM
 
Not the most pleasant subject but one that is often filled with huge mark-ups: funeral expenses. Walmart has begun selling caskets and urns online. Prices for caskets range from $1,000 to $3,200.

From an article in USA Today:

"The move gives more power to consumers and helps them avoid high mark-ups on caskets, which can often be several hundred percent, said R. Brian Burkhardt, a funeral director who blogs as "Your Funeral Guy."

"You can get a quality casket for $1,000 rather than pay $2,000, $3,000 or $5,000 in a funeral home. That's where it helps the consumer," he said.

Obviously, any time you're in the process of purchasing a casket, it's a pretty emotional time and I've heard horror stories about the high mark-ups on funeral expenses.


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I came across an interesting comment in that USA Today article:

"Years ago a friend of mine who was an Industrial Engineer did a cost study at a large casket maker in Alabama. He found that the difference between their casket that retailed for about $800 and ones that retailed for over $5000 was less than $100 in materials. And the overall materials cost was less than $150. This was in the 1970s, but the opportunity to undercut funeral homes and even the Wal-Mart and Costco prices is still there. Incredible that anyone can profit so greatly on someone's death, or would want to."

You can read the full article here: Wal-Mart starts selling caskets, urns online
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CHEERS to Walmart!!!! I know this is an uncomfortable subject to talk about but you would not believe how grief strickened people get talked into 'high priced' items simply because they are in a vulnerable state, and they can be taken advantaged of .. We have had 'pre arrangements' done several years ago, in our 30's. . . because we knew how costly things can get and we wanted to discuss things BEFORE we absolutely had to ( and when you're forced to make decisions immediately due to a death) . We are very glad we did, we have nothing to buy now except extras if we want them. ( and we paid prices that were in force back then, no inflated charges like today) . We no longer have to think about beefing up life ins polcies to pay for burial expenses because it's done and a load off our minds. . . we picked out what we wanted and pd for everything already . Also, i worked for the BBB for years and this was a huge complaint we reported on, victims of extremely high funeral home charges. Its best to talk about these things when you DON'T have to , when there is no sadness/grief to deal with. I can't overstress this enough.
 
Posted by anonymous on October 31, 2009 2:54 PM
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