Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: The Casket Racket

Episode Date: January 5, 2022

And you thought we were done with talking about funeral homes. Well guess again! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck. This is short stuff.

This is another funeral edition one. The never ending death suite, I guess, is what it's a part of. I know. And I just want funeral directors out there who listen to know that we don't not like you, just because this episode is going to be called the casket racket. It doesn't mean we don't like you. But when you look at the numbers of the price of caskets, the markup on caskets, it is a little hard to not think there's got to be a better way. Yeah, a more fair, humane way that doesn't just completely rip off the consumer. So I think the average casket in the United States goes for about 2,500 bucks, which is a significant contributor to the overall cost of a funeral, which can be eight to 10 grand on average. That's like a quarter or more of the

total cost just as in the casket alone. And apparently that price has increased dramatically, Chuck, like a 250% increase over the last 30 years. So you would think like, okay, that means that the casket making guild has broken up and they're not passing along, their knowledge any longer. The stuff that they use to make caskets have become so rare that we can hardly get our hands on it anymore. What else could qualify caskets for a 250% increase in price over the years, which by the way is twice as much of the inflation rate as the next highest item has grown in price over the last 30 years. So what is it about caskets that has made them grow in price so much, Chuck? Well, I mean, things that contribute certainly

if you're just shopping for a casket, and this isn't necessarily inflation, but if you're wondering how you spend six grand on a casket, it's a piece of, it's not furniture, but it's made out of wood if you want a wood one, they're also metal ones, we'll get into both. But if you're looking at something made out of wood, obviously the materials is going to be a big deal. So if you want the mahogany or the hickory or the walnut casket, it's going to cost a lot more than like the pine box or the oak box. If you're looking at metal, the pricey ones are 20 gauge steel, and you know, you can also get copper or bronze and stuff like that. I think the least pricey ones are the 20 gauge steel, like that's their pine box version for metal ones. Oh, did I say most expensive?

Yeah, I think you said pricey. Yeah, I meant at least expensive, sorry about that. Yeah, I got you. Obviously the copper and the bronze are going to be the priciest ones, but you know, then there's craftsmanship with any kind of anything made by human hands. If it's got, you know, fancier stuff on it, it's going to cost a lot more. If the corners are all rounded instead of welded off, it's going to be a lot more. So all these things go into determining the price, but and of course what's going on on the inside as well, all the fancy silks and almost said bunting, but like that crepe interior is going to be less expensive than velvet. So inside and out, the materials matter, the craftsmanship matters, but and maybe we should, well no, let's go ahead and say it

before the break. Okay. What's really going on is there are two main casket manufacturers in the US, Batesville and Matthews. They have not a monopoly, but about 82% share of the distribution. It's awfully close. It's pretty close and they don't sell to people. They sell only to funeral homes. So they mark it up by 300 or 400% and then the funeral directors can then mark it up as well. So that's where the money's really going. Yes, through the markup because they have almost a monopoly. So I say that we take that break you were talking about, maybe lie and repose for a couple of minutes and we will come back and get active again. Sounds good.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new iHeart podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road. Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help this. I promise you. Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so my husband Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yeah, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids relationships life in general can get

messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangeh Shtikler. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention. Because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and

let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, Major League Baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world can crash down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. So Chuck, one of the reasons why the two main manufacturers of caskets can mark their prices up is because they sell directly to funeral homes. And the reason that funeral

directors can further mark those up to whatever they want is because most people don't shop around for not only a casket, but a funeral home. They probably went to a funeral at the funeral home they're using before. Maybe they've used that funeral home before and they're a repeat customer. I would guess that unless you have a really bad experience with a funeral home, you're probably going to use the same one over and over again because you're in the depths of grief and you're not thinking about your bottom line or your pocketbook, you're just trying to get through this terrible time. And funeral directors know that and they price their prices accordingly because they have a captive customer. That's right. There's probably one family member

who's really wanting to shop around. Uncle Sal. But Uncle Sal gets shut down, usually by the other family members who talk about this is not the time to cheap out. So he just loudly complains throughout the rest of the process. That's right. A lot of rolled eyes, a lot of herumps. Yeah. Oh, here we go again. How much is this guest book going to cost? But you're right. Most people go to the same place and they know they got you there. By the way, quick aside, the funeral home, which I've talked about a lot across the street for me, they were shooting a movie there yesterday. Oh, really? What movie?

I don't know, but they changed the funeral sign. So if you ever see a movie with a Goldhurst and FNG funeral home, that's across the street from my house. You know, just based on probabilities, there's like a 40 to 50% chance it was a Marvel movie. Sure. Here in Atlanta, you're right. Yeah. Or just because it's a movie. Right. Exactly right. All right. So they got you in there. They know they can market up, but there are online casket retailers now who have had enough. They say, we want more than an 18% market share because we're going direct to customer. We are selling them cheaper. In some cases, you can save 700 to 1500 bucks on the casket alone.

Mm-hmm. And some of them deliver overnight. The other ones have them to you in like a few days. And they're like, this is an outdated model that we're using where these, you know, we need to move on from this to manufacturers and move into the modern age, where you can buy this thing on Amazon or Costco. Right, which is smart and it makes sense. And if you give any kind of thought to this, or if you'll listen to your Uncle Sal and your Uncle Sal happens to be tech savvy and knows to go on to Amazon to order a casket, you can order one of these caskets and save hundreds, potentially thousands of dollars and get pretty much the same casket that you would get from the funeral

director. And time was up until not that long ago that the funeral director would say, sorry, we don't deal in third-party caskets. We're only able to supply our own caskets, those are the only ones we use. And that was what they did. They blocked caskets that were purchased outside. And you had no choice but to buy your casket through the funeral home you were using until, and get this, until the federal government stepped in and said, funeral industry, you've gotten so bad and so predatory that we, the federal trade commission, are going to enact what's called the funeral rule. And we're going to set up a bunch of rules that govern how you conduct your business because you have shown that you can't be trusted to conduct

your business fairly otherwise. And one of them is that you have to accept third-party caskets. Yeah. And you know, that's why it's called the casket racket. That's why this episode is titled that because it was a racket up until then. The only reason I'm going to say it's not a racket anymore is because of that funeral rule where they do have to accept a third-party casket. But they're still, as of 2019, 82% of caskets are still purchased through those main manufacturers. Like that's still going on. I think much of that is because people just don't know that there is that funeral rule and that there are other options. Yeah. And the next time that somebody complains to you about big government,

you tell them about the funeral rule and tell them to go think about that. You can get free shipping with some of these. Like I said, you can many times get them overnighted or there in a few days and you can save a lot of money. And like this sounds like we're on a soap box, but it's just, it's a bad time when you're bearing a loved one and it's already expensive. So if we can impart a little wisdom and you can save, you know, a couple of grand, like I think we're doing a service here. I agree wholeheartedly. And I think Chuck, we should do an entire episode on the funeral rule. It's pretty, it's much more expansive than just making funeral directors except third party caskets. There's a lot more to it.

Yeah. I'm surprised we didn't cover that in any of our anti-funeral. Yeah. And also we've done an entire episode on caskets, if I'm not mistaken. I know. Remember Ghana has this awesome tradition of making these super style and cool caskets. So if you have some time to kill right now, go online and do an image search of Ghana caskets and you'll be impressed. That's right. And we also did one on cremation and the latest numbers, I think we did this back then, but just to keep everyone updated, the 2021 numbers

by the NFDA, the National Funeral Directors Association, say that the cremation rate now in America is projected to be 58%. And they're projecting that out in 2030 to drop down to 25% of burial. So 75% cremation by 2030. Yeah. I don't know that that's going to have an effect on caskets because people who are cremated still often have like viewings and showings and check them out and all that stuff. You're still going to need a casket for it. So I don't know that that'll affect things, but you know, there you go. That's a great way to end.

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