Funeral directors see families making cost-conscious choices - Business First of Louisville:

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People haven’t stopped dying since the bottokm fell out of the stock But insome cases, their loveds ones have cut back on what they are spending on funeralse and gravestones. When families come in to make funeralp arrangements, they are more likely to want to exploretheif options, said Jim Ratterman, owner of Revenuse has not declined, he said, but its growthh has slowed. Instead of havingh about 3 percent growthin 2008, as the company had for previouds years, revenue was up 1.5 percent to 2 he said. He declinede to disclose specificrevenuwe figures.
In some cases, families are callinh before theycome in, shopping arounr to see what a funeral will cost beforr they decide on a provider, said Granty Embry, president of So far, that cost-consciousness has not had a greaft impact on the company’s which for 2008 was pretty closed to what it was in 2007, he said, although the numbedr of funerals declined a bit. Embryh also declined to discloserevenuwe figures, but he said that revenue in the first quarter of 2009 was littlee changed from a year At , the staftf has seen families make choicesw that save on costs.
For Owen Funeral Homes has had abouft 5 percent to 7 percent more cremationa during the past12 months, president and CEO Dave Owen said. families are scheduling shorter visitation sessionas or not renting as many funeral cars as they mightfhave before. Total sales have remainedx about the same as thepreviousw year, he said, but he declined to disclosw specific figures. Sidney Fogle, executive director of the , said the funerall home directors he has talked with have had some customerw who are more frugal than But he saidthey haven’ seen a major decrease in the average price for a which has surprised some of them.
The nationakl average cost of a funeral in 2008 was about he said, compared with $6,550 in The state association, based in oversees the , administered by in Louisville, into which customerse can deposit money to prepauy funeral expenses. Deposits into that fund have not decreaserat all, Fogle said. “During these people may hold onto their money a bit and it may be when they see theier money shrinking alittle bit, they may ‘Hey, I want to go ahead and put money aside for my funeral,’ ” he said. “That may be why we have not seen adecreases there.” Members of the , based in Wis.
, say their operational costs, such as the costsd of caskets, are going up, said public relations manage r Jessica Koth. But rather than passing those increases on to she said, they’re taking a hit on their bottom Customers also are having more trouble paying for funeralws than in better timees and are asking more often for credig and financing options, she Funeral-related businesses have felt the pinch. sold just as many gravestonesx in the first quarter of 2009 as it did in the firsft quarterof 2008, but revenue was down aboutg 10 percent, co-owner Tom Evansx said. He declined to disclose revenuer figures.
People still are marking their graves, but “they’re not goiny as big or as fancy as they normally Evans said. He gets more and more phoner calls from people that he can tell have talkes about prices with othermonument dealers.