NEWSLETTER Issue No. 10 ©1999/Darryl J. Roberts February 1999 Additional/Back Issues Dear website visitor, Competition is good, unless you're in the traditional death care industry.  Legislation recently enacted in California requires that we all pay attention and take action.  This competition-smashing legislation is now being sold to the legislatures in every state in the country. Darryl J. Roberts Restraint of Trade There’s now even more evidence that funeral directors will do everything possible to eliminate any competition they might possibly have. California’s death care practitioners have recently convinced their state legislature to enact legislation that will guarantee that there will be little or no competition to the traditional funeral acquisition. A Little Background Over the last few years, a revolutionary idea has cropped up in many parts of the country. This new concept allows consumers to purchase caskets from retail establishments dedicated primarily to selling caskets. Casket stores represent a significant threat to the funeral industry’s ability to overcharge for caskets by enabling consumers to purchase at significant discounts from the prices charged by funeral homes. These stores offer virtually the same goods as those provided by funeral homes, but at a much lower price. This marketing concept is perceived as such a serious threat that members of the death care industry are willing to do and say almost anything to reduce and eliminate this type of competition. California Legislators Duped Such is the case in California where funeral lobbyists have convinced legislators that these direct marketers pose a real threat to the state’s consumers. The death care industry knows that it cannot compete on a level playing field. Therefore, its only recourse is to attempt – and in this case succeed – to eliminate its competition through twisted legislative efforts. A January issue of a trade publication lauds the new California law which basically restricts retail casket sales to those made by funeral homes. Thanks to this legislative insight, California consumers will no longer be able to purchase caskets from casket retail stores. Why? Reasons for Legislation Cited by the Funeral Industry 1. Consumers need protection. Prohibiting non-funeral directors from selling caskets helps prevent the spread of communicative diseases because unregulated parties may not handle caskets properly. One of the points used to sell this anti-competitive measure was to claim that third-party sell casket sellers would in some manner spread communicative diseases because they may not handle caskets properly. This statement made by the death care professionals may be the best example of their total and complete arrogance concerning the death care experience. As one rationally thinks through the process of selling a casket, one cannot find any possible way that the practice could cause any health-care problems. A casket is, after all, merely a box with a fancy interior that is used to hold human remains. It is impossible to handle a casket in any manner that would spread any type of disease. It takes much less knowledge to handle a casket properly then it does a refrigerator or VCR. Other than a few hinges, there are no moving parts in a casket! I am incredulous that California lawmakers would believe that third party casket sellers could possibly cause any type of communicable disease problem. Obviously, the funeral lobby did a great job in selling this idea to the legislators. At the same time consumers did a lousy job in rising to the occasion of informing their legislators just how ridiculous this proposal is. 2. The need to ensure the accuracy of death statistics requires that only funeral directors sell caskets. Another point that the funeral industry used in selling this legislation needs a direct quote to fully comprehend and appreciate the ridiculous arguments used by the death care professionals. They stated that "the need to ensure the accuracy of death statistics requires only funeral directors to sell caskets." Perhaps they are truly convinced that only they are responsible for the accuracy of death care statistics in the state of California. Only if they believe that can they make the mental leap to believing that by eliminating all of the competition for selling caskets will ensure that California’s statistics will be protected. How much better California consumers must rest at night knowing that the funeral industry is protecting their vital statistics by knowing that may have eliminated all of the competition for selling caskets! The arrogance of the death care professionals is more than I can understand. Neither of the reasons cited has anything to do with their real reasoning for instituting this law which is, quite bluntly, to limit competition. Take a Look at Why They Really Wanted this Law Protection from retail casket stores? I find it quite difficult to imagine how retail casket stores could possibly pose any consumer protection threat. Why would any legislative body buy this argument? Where is the threat? Just who exactly is being threatened? On the contrary, doesn’t putting the competition out of business hurt the consumer? Consumers need more protection from the funeral industry then they do from any type of retail establishment. Of course, the truth lies in the fact that the traditional death care providers are threatened, their very existence and ability to market their products at prices they set is threatened. The largest single expense of a funeral is the casket, and the casket is the one product that the death care industry has been able to control throughout its history. Now, with the advent of the casket retailer, the entire death care industry is threatened. Where were the consumers during the introduction and passage of this legislation? Where was the AARP who should be a proponent of retail casket establishments when this negative piece was being introduced? This legislation cannot be construed in any fashion to be considered consumer protection. Pure and simply, it is "funeral industry protection" and it is a disgrace that the lawmakers of California were duped. It Won’t Stop in California Unfortunately, these fallacious arguments are going before the Federal Trade Commission when it begins its deliberations concerning the funeral rule later in 1999. The national funeral directors association is sharing this California law with their colleagues in all of the other 49 states. Consumers must become outraged at this blatant attempt to restrict competition in their states, which will serve no other purpose than to maintain the unnecessarily high cost of dying. Retail casket stores, in my opinion, is one of the industry’s best ideas over the past few years. Instead of reducing prices and improving customer service, the death care industry has once again chosen to treat this intrusion into their business world as a threat, a threat they are willing to do almost anything to stop. The legislation recently enacted in California will no doubt be adopted by many other states because it will be done almost completely behind closed doors where the consumer will not even be aware of what is going on. There will be no fanfare, no press conferences. Only silence. The funeral lobby will make sure that it is done as quietly as possible. They know that their arguments cannot stand scrutiny by the consumers or the public. Consumers need to be ever vigilant or the death care vandals will usurp their rights.

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