Funeral Industry News, Information, and Trends

Since the beginning of burials, man has often gone to the grave with company. These days, funeral directors grant most requests: a shotgun … a case of beer … a bottle of Jack Daniels … some favorite cigars … golf clubs, usually putters … a clarinet … a tool belt … homemade wine … Oreo cookies … hot peppers.

“Out here, everyone gets buried with their cell phone,’’ said Noelle Berman, a family counselor at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. “Cell phones. Blackberrys. Wii Consoles.’’

“Nowadays, you have the TV remote,’’ said Bill O’Leary, a Philadelphia funeral director. “That’s like the hottest thing.’’

Centuries from now, what will archeologists make of all these buried artifacts? What will it say about us?

Read more: The Crowded Casket, More Than Dead Being Buried In Casket

The students left for a range of reasons, including strong family opposition or better-paid jobs elsewhere. Those who stayed did so because of appreciation and deep love of the funeral industry, said the Shanghai Funeral and Interment Trade Association yesterday.

The 3,000 students went through interviews and started training, and by December only 108 students were left. Since then, another eight quit.

Most of the 100 who are working in the field are sales clerks for funeral parlors and cemeteries, or doing funeral planning. Only six touch a corpse in daily work.

Officials said most students pulled out during the training, as they were scared by the corpses when they visited funeral parlors, and others were able to have a try in other industry.

Read more: Spooked Grads Flee Death-Industry Jobs

The burial vault is the one thing that funeral homes have always had a strong hold on because burial vault companies don't sell direct to the public or superstores. But don't forget about the cemetery.

Cemeteries have begun to push burial vaults on the public more and more. Where we are located in central Ohio cemeteries are doing everything they can to sell the families whatever they can. They are even including burial vaults into the sale of the burial plot, and in most cases the families have no idea they are even purchasing the burial vault. There are cases of course, where families do know they are purchasing a burial vault and are happy with making that purchase at the cemetery.

Earlier this week I was at a local cemetery and from what I saw I can't imagine how any family could ever be comfortable purchasing one of their vaults. Take a look at the picture below.

Read more: What Are Cemeteries Thinking?

Someone dear to us died last year. She led a relatively quiet life, blessing her family and what appeared to be her few friends. So one would expect that her memorial service would be small and, well, quiet.

Not so. People appeared in droves at the visitation and funeral, some driving hundreds of miles. Now why would this be? Why does a funeral draw so many while an actual life draws so few?

Read more: OPINION SHAPER: Why Does a Funeral Draw so Many While an Actual Life Draws So Few?

Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jonathan Mintz says the inspections of 579 funeral home resulted in 87 businesses being charged with a total of 275 violations. That works out to a compliance rate of 85 percent. The charged funeral homes could face more than $230,000 in fines.

Manhattan funeral homes had the highest compliance rate, with only five percent receiving violations. Brooklyn had the lowest compliance rate, with 26 percent of businesses receiving violations.

Read more: Many NYC Funeral Homes Deny Consumers Pricing Information, Fined Big Time