Out of morbid curiosity...
April 24, 2015 7:54 AM Subscribe
A friend tells me that there are few if any family-owned funeral parlors left in the US. Although nearly all funeral parlors appear to be small establishments, they are in fact operated by large corporations. The reason they maintain the family business atmosphere is because people don't want a big company dealing with their loved ones' remains. Is it true?
Definitely. Corporate takeover of family funeral homes has been going on for decades, but because the family name has brand recognition in the community--and because funerals are a really conservative affair (you're not going to have your loved one taken care of at Embalmr), that old-fashioned community branding is extremely important so that you don't run customers off.
In some communities, families who have had their businesses bought out, but who want to keep doing the job, will open up smaller competing funeral homes; this has happened in my town, and so there's (for example) The Doe Funeral Home as well as the John Doe Funeral Home, and then there's this little disclaimer at the bottom of the ads that they're not related to each other.
posted by mittens at 8:01 AM on April 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
In some communities, families who have had their businesses bought out, but who want to keep doing the job, will open up smaller competing funeral homes; this has happened in my town, and so there's (for example) The Doe Funeral Home as well as the John Doe Funeral Home, and then there's this little disclaimer at the bottom of the ads that they're not related to each other.
posted by mittens at 8:01 AM on April 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Hi! I own a family funeral home.
So, basically, you have three types of funeral homes.
1. Family owned and operated funeral homes. There are plenty of these. Especially in smaller and older communities.
2. Corporate owned and created funeral homes. Mostly from SCI and Stewart. These are the big, big corporations. Most of these funeral homes have always been corporate homes.
3. Family funeral homes who were sold to corporations or small conglomerates. These are the ones you're probably referring to. So, what happens is that there's no next generation to take over the family business. So, they sell the business to a management group that keeps the name and runs the entire business. Sometimes, they'll keep on some of the old staff to make customers comfortable, but they are, in almost all ways, run as a franchise of a larger group.
posted by ColdChef at 8:04 AM on April 24, 2015 [39 favorites]
So, basically, you have three types of funeral homes.
1. Family owned and operated funeral homes. There are plenty of these. Especially in smaller and older communities.
2. Corporate owned and created funeral homes. Mostly from SCI and Stewart. These are the big, big corporations. Most of these funeral homes have always been corporate homes.
3. Family funeral homes who were sold to corporations or small conglomerates. These are the ones you're probably referring to. So, what happens is that there's no next generation to take over the family business. So, they sell the business to a management group that keeps the name and runs the entire business. Sometimes, they'll keep on some of the old staff to make customers comfortable, but they are, in almost all ways, run as a franchise of a larger group.
posted by ColdChef at 8:04 AM on April 24, 2015 [39 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks, ColdChef. Do you have a rough sense of the proportion of each of these?
posted by stinker at 8:06 AM on April 24, 2015
posted by stinker at 8:06 AM on April 24, 2015
There's a plot arc in the show Six Feet Under that hits all 3 points ColdChef mentions above and goes into the various issues surrounding them. It's fictional, but it's also a great show otherwise and worth a watch if you haven't seen it.
posted by phunniemee at 8:20 AM on April 24, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 8:20 AM on April 24, 2015 [7 favorites]
SCI is a publicly-traded company and has this information in some of its investor presentations.
Anyway, according to SCI and its data sources, the "deathcare industry" consists of 22,000 funeral homes and 4,000 cemeteries.
SCI, which has acquired Stewart, has 16% market share. Other big consolidators have 5% market share. The rest SCI calls "independents" and they have 79% of the market.
posted by mullacc at 8:20 AM on April 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
Anyway, according to SCI and its data sources, the "deathcare industry" consists of 22,000 funeral homes and 4,000 cemeteries.
SCI, which has acquired Stewart, has 16% market share. Other big consolidators have 5% market share. The rest SCI calls "independents" and they have 79% of the market.
posted by mullacc at 8:20 AM on April 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
Best answer: This is kind of a surprise to me, but according to the NFDA, 86% of funeral homes are family owned, 14% are corporate.
http://nfda.org/about-funeral-service-/trends-and-statistics.html
posted by ColdChef at 8:20 AM on April 24, 2015 [12 favorites]
http://nfda.org/about-funeral-service-/trends-and-statistics.html
posted by ColdChef at 8:20 AM on April 24, 2015 [12 favorites]
Not a direct answer, but consolidation of independently owned funeral homes is big plot point in Six Feet Under, if a fictive view is at all interesting to you.
posted by GilloD at 8:30 AM on April 24, 2015
posted by GilloD at 8:30 AM on April 24, 2015
This is kind of a surprise to me, but according to the NFDA, 86% of funeral homes are family owned, 14% are corporate.
Weelll....two questions to add to those numbers:
1. Are are "homes" defined here. Is the place with one web site, one name but 5 locations one funeral home or 5?
2. Note that the last category is "publicly traded corporations." A company can be very big and corporate but not publicly traded. e.g. Walmart. I don't think we would think of the funeral home equivalent of Walmart as a family-run home, as much as the Waltons may try to sell Walmart as a family business.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:32 AM on April 24, 2015
Weelll....two questions to add to those numbers:
1. Are are "homes" defined here. Is the place with one web site, one name but 5 locations one funeral home or 5?
2. Note that the last category is "publicly traded corporations." A company can be very big and corporate but not publicly traded. e.g. Walmart. I don't think we would think of the funeral home equivalent of Walmart as a family-run home, as much as the Waltons may try to sell Walmart as a family business.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:32 AM on April 24, 2015
This is kind of a surprise to me, but according to the NFDA, 86% of funeral homes are family owned, 14% are corporate.
Would a family-run funeral home that is paying a franchise fee to a corporation count as "family owned" or "corporate"? Or, does that arrangement even exist?
posted by Thorzdad at 9:31 AM on April 24, 2015
Would a family-run funeral home that is paying a franchise fee to a corporation count as "family owned" or "corporate"? Or, does that arrangement even exist?
posted by Thorzdad at 9:31 AM on April 24, 2015
completely off topic but due to the "you're not going to have your loved one taken care of at Embalmr" comment... oh god, laughing so hard at the thought of a large funeral home company named "Embal-Mart"
posted by erst at 11:50 AM on April 24, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by erst at 11:50 AM on April 24, 2015 [6 favorites]
If only I had a penguin...: "A company can be very big and corporate but not publicly traded. e.g. Walmart."
For the record, Walmart is publicly traded. On the other hand, while they definitely don't meet the technical defintion of "closely-held", I don't know how much actual influence and control the Walton family exerts over Walmart (so it might actually end up behaving like a closely-held corporation anyways). Companies like Facebook and Google are also not closely-held, but their share structures are such that the effective owners (Zuckerberg and Larry Page & Sergey Brin, respectively) can more or less control them as if they were.
I would guess that in the NFDA's context, "closely-held corporation" is probably meant to include things like small LLCs and such but it's possible that within the funeral industry there are some larger closely-held, private corporations.
A brief Yahoo Finance search yields the following information on publicly-traded funeral corporations:
At the same time, you have a private company like Arbor Memorial, with 86 funeral homes (all in Canada, though) that puts it not too far away from StoneMor. I haven't yet been able to find a comparable private company in the US.
posted by mhum at 5:43 PM on April 24, 2015
For the record, Walmart is publicly traded. On the other hand, while they definitely don't meet the technical defintion of "closely-held", I don't know how much actual influence and control the Walton family exerts over Walmart (so it might actually end up behaving like a closely-held corporation anyways). Companies like Facebook and Google are also not closely-held, but their share structures are such that the effective owners (Zuckerberg and Larry Page & Sergey Brin, respectively) can more or less control them as if they were.
I would guess that in the NFDA's context, "closely-held corporation" is probably meant to include things like small LLCs and such but it's possible that within the funeral industry there are some larger closely-held, private corporations.
A brief Yahoo Finance search yields the following information on publicly-traded funeral corporations:
- Service Corp. International (SCI) - 1,559 locations
- Carriage Services International (CSV) - 165 funeral homes
- StoneMor Partners (STON) - 98 funeral homes
At the same time, you have a private company like Arbor Memorial, with 86 funeral homes (all in Canada, though) that puts it not too far away from StoneMor. I haven't yet been able to find a comparable private company in the US.
posted by mhum at 5:43 PM on April 24, 2015
Huh...I don't know why I was so sure Walmart was family held, only. Anyway, my point was that one can be pretty damn big and not publicly traded.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:15 PM on April 24, 2015
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:15 PM on April 24, 2015
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posted by OmieWise at 7:59 AM on April 24, 2015 [1 favorite]