WEBVTT - Why Are Caskets So Expensive? 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:10.800 Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum. Here in the United States, 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:13.640 the cost of a traditional funeral is between eight thousand 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:17.440 and ten thousand dollars on average, and that doesn't include 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.200 the price of the burial plot and other cemetery fees. 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:24.400 A casket alone runs two thousand, five hundred dollars on average, 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.560 making it the biggest single expense of saying goodbye to 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.520 a loved one. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:35.560 the price of caskets has skyrocketed two over the past 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.560 thirty years, outpacing the inflation rate for other consumer products 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:44.640 by more than double So why exactly do caskets cost 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.960 so much? Is it simply the cost of materials or 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:51.280 our funeral homes taking advantage of grieving customers who aren't 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:56.279 emotionally prepared to shop around. What many people don't know 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:58.840 is that they don't have to buy a casket from 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.240 their funeral home. It's a federal law that funeral homes 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.399 must accept all outside caskets, including ones they are bought 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:09.320 online or from Costco for example. Before the article. This 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:11.920 episode is based on how Stuff Works. Spoke with both 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.520 a second generation funeral home director and the co founders 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.479 of an online casket company aiming to disrupt the funeral industry. 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.959 Douglas Dutch Knee is the CEO and funeral director at 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.600 Knee Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services in ann Arbor, Michigan. 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:31.640 Knee and his six sisters grew up in a home 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.399 above the family business, and he and his wife purchased 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.680 the funeral home from N's parents in the year two 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:41.560 thousand and These own kids work there now too. When 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:43.800 it comes to the price of a casket, Nie says 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.160 that there are a lot of variables, which is why 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:48.840 he says he can offer families a no frills casket 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:51.120 for as low as nine hundred dollars to a high 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.720 end casket that runs six thousand or more. The biggest 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.800 differentiator is the material with which the casket is built. 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.639 There are two main types of casket material, wood and metal. 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:05.880 Nie explained, with a wood casket, you can equate it 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.120 to furniture. A ma hagany, hickory, or walnut casket is 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.560 going to cost far more than pine or oak. For 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.799 metal caskets, the US expensive models are made of twin 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.959 e gauge steel, while the pricest are constructed from semi 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.840 precious metals like copper or bronze. For both wood and 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:26.880 metal caskets, the quality and details of the craftsmanship rounded 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.519 corners instead of welded, for example, will also determine the price. 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.240 And then there are other considerations like the material inside 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:38.280 the casket. A crape interior is going to be less 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:42.239 expensive than velvet. For military burial, the family might want 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.080 to customize the interior with an army or Navy seal. 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:49.880 All of this upgrades and details can add up. Knee 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:53.119 insists that despite the high average cost of a casket, 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.240 most funeral homes carry a range of caskets to meet 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:58.560 the budget of everyone in their community to make sure 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.600 that they have something for everyone. But there could be 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:07.200 other reasons why caskets have gotten so expensive. Josh Siegel 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.680 and Scott Ginsburg are co founders of Titan Casket, an 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.480 online casket retailer, and they argue that an outdated business 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.560 model they call it big Casket, is to blame for 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:21.080 the high price of most funeral home casket. It turns 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:25.800 out the two large manufacturers, Batesville and Matthews, control of 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:30.760 the casket distribution in the US, as Siegel said, they 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:34.440 exclusively selled the funeral homes. Because of that structure, they 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:40.600 mark up their caskets three and that casket monopoly is 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.360 only one part of the problem, the Titan guys argue. 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:48.280 The other part is opportunistic markup. Ginsburg said, for the 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.520 most part, consumers in these situations don't shop. They go 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.080 to the same funeral home they've always gone to. It's 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:56.440 not right or wrong, it's just what people do. And 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.960 funeral directors understand people don't shop, which is why they 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.800 and charged twice as much for the same casket. And 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.160 many Americans don't know that you have the right to 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.280 supply your own casket for a loved one's funeral. The 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.640 Federal Trade Commission enacted the Funeral Rule, which aimed to 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.680 bring greater transparency to funeral pricing. The rule also made 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.039 it illegal for a funeral home to refuse to handle 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.919 a casket the client purchased from a third party retailer, 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:27.800 which now includes online sales. A lot of grieving families 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.360 simply aren't interested in shopping around for a better deal 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.680 on a casket, and that's understandable. That's one of the 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:37.520 reasons why that of caskets were still purchased through funeral 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:41.280 homes as of twenty nineteen, but companies like Titan think 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.760 that if consumers knew how easy it was to buy 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.279 a casket online and potentially a lot less expensive, then 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:49.960 people would buy more caskets outside of the funeral home. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.600 Ni who is a past president of the Michigan Funeral 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:57.880 Directors Association and is currently an at large board member 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.440 of the National Funeral Directors Association, and says that funeral 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.600 homes are happy to comply with the FTC's funeral rule 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.720 a quote, families can choose to purchase something online and 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.360 there's not an issue at all. Our business model is 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.039 to provide services to families, and the casket is just 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.159 one of the items that can be chosen to ensure 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.640 that the services conducted the way a family wants. Besides, 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.279 n points out fewer people are choosing a traditional burial anymore. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.800 According to report, the cremation rate of Americans was around 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:33.640 fifty that year, and by traditional burial is expected to 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:38.640 drop to just of all funerals. With cremation, the body 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.960 is placed in an inexpensive plywood or cardboard container that 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:46.440 is also consumed in the fire. By the way, have 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.800 you ever wondered why undertakers are called undertakers? Back in 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.640 the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the first undertakers were furniture 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:58.479 makers who started building caskets as a sideline. They got 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:07.080 their name by being the people undertaking the burial. Today's 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.840 episode is based on the article Grave Matters Why are 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.800 Caskets so Expensive? On housetof works dot com, written by 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.320 Dave Rubs. The brain Stuff is production of I Heart 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:17.440 Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot com, and 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.360 it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts to my 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.479 heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:25.200 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.