Chicago — Whether you're in the market for a good night's sleep or the eternal kind, there's now a discount store somewhere that has you covered.
On Monday, Costco Wholesale Corp., better known for bulk chicken and cases of soda, started test marketing caskets in the mattress section of a North Side Chicago store. They're also being sold at a suburban Oak Brook store.
“This is certainly something that can be an easy value,” said Gina Bianche, a buyer in Costco's corporate office in Issaquah, Wash. “I don't want to say cheap value, but it just needs to be done.”
Each of the six models from the Universal Casket Co., in colours including lilac and Neapolitan blue, is priced at $799.99 (U.S.), made of 18-gauge steel, considered medium weight for caskets, and can be delivered within 48 hours.
Caskets could already be purchased directly from manufacturers, in funeral supply stores and over the Internet, but big general merchandise stores had stayed away from selling caskets until now, said David Walkinshaw, a spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association.
At a Costco on Chicago's north side, shoppers checking out the new casket kiosk Monday seemed to like the idea that the same store where they buy so many things for this life was branching into the afterlife.
“A casket at Costco, yeah, I think it's pretty bizarre,” said Inga Barth, 53. She wondered about buying a casket with only a kiosk and small samples of the caskets' material to look over, though, saying, “When you go casket shopping, you want to see the whole thing.”
That didn't trouble John Neuhaus.
“I want the adjustable bed and mattress for my neck,” he joked, pointing to one of the features highlighted at the kiosk. After all, he said, “It says ‘eternal rest.' ”
Others liked the idea of being able to shop for the casket long before a loved one's death, a time when the survivors are distressed, under time constraints and may feel pressured by funeral homes.
“I remember my mom was supposed to get a plain pine box for my dad and she walked out with mahogany,” said Gretchen Henninger.
Those involved in arranging funerals were not as enthusiastic about discount retailers moving in on their business.
“If you take the casket out of the equation and the casket is purchased in a retail environment, then that portion of the funeral director's profit centre will disappear and the funeral director must respond to that,” said George Lemke, executive director of the Casket and Funeral Supply Association.
Asked if that meant raising prices, he replied: “That's entirely possible.”
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