Business

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, Chevrolet. . . and digging graves

By Funeral Director Daily / July 19, 2024 /

    According to this article from Mac’s Motor City Garage “Chevrolet truly was working to be all things to all Americans. If the carmaker had its way, every American would be driving a Chevy. And in 1974, James Hartzell, a copywriter for Campbell Ewald, the division’s longtime ad agency, created a slogan that united…

Grimes family buys cemeteries, prepares for the 3rd generation

By Funeral Director Daily / July 18, 2024 /

    Johnny and Stacey Grimes are the owners of the Grimes Funeral Home in Kerrville, Texas, and according to this article from the Hill Country Community Journal they recently purchased the two Garden of Memories cemeteries in Kerrville to expand their business.   More often you see family funeral homes acquire other funeral homes…

Is the “Employment change” grass a little less green today?

By Funeral Director Daily / July 16, 2024 /

    We’ve all heard the saying, “The grass is greener on the other side of the street“.  And, what that pertains to is that wherever you are, in whatever situation you are in, it always appears that life would be a little easier somewhere else.  However, until you have tried that “somewhere else” do…

Modern morticians need to be “Facilitators of Choices”

By Funeral Director Daily / July 15, 2024 /

      I’m guessing that if somebody asked you to picture an “old time mortician” in your mind, you might think somewhat like I do and picture that pioneer mortician so often portrayed from the days of the United States westward expansion during the 2nd half of the 1800’s.   That time period between…

A roadblock in Delaware

By Funeral Director Daily / July 12, 2024 /

    All states have some type of restriction on who can fill in and file death certificates online.  And, in most states, that responsibility lies many times with licensed funeral directors and morticians.  This article from Delaware Public Radio WDDE tells us of a discrimination lawsuit being filed by the American Civil Liberties Union…

Family-run firms expand in Indiana and Wales . . and “Have it All”

By Funeral Director Daily / July 11, 2024 /

  For the past three days Funeral Director Daily has ran feature articles that deal with the major public companies in our profession — Matthews International, Service Corporation International, and Carriage Services.  While lots of attention goes to those big companies I continually remind myself that “Death Care” is a local and home-grown business.  …

Matthews International, EV automaker Tesla at odds over lawsuit

By Funeral Director Daily / July 8, 2024 /

    Matthews International is a company that according to this rating action from Fitch, collects 45% of its revenue from its Memorialization Segment and also brings home approximately 60% of its EBITDA from that source.  As you may know, Matthews International is the parent company of Aurora Casket and Matthews Cremation and  other death…

Minnesota’s “Transfer Care Specialist” category is now effective

By Funeral Director Daily / July 5, 2024 /

    In an effort to help alleviate some of the worker shortages in the funeral home profession the State of Minnesota Legislature passed what is known as the “Transfer Care Specialist” category for funeral homes this past session.  That category of workers became effective on July 1 and is now in effect.   In…

Politics, political correctness, and your funeral home

By Funeral Director Daily / July 1, 2024 /

    It was almost impossible last week to live in the United States and not know or hear about the Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.  Even if you didn’t want to know it was happening, you knew anyway because it dominated the news and announcements on almost every…

Lots of competition. . .lots of opportunity

By Funeral Director Daily / June 28, 2024 /

    I received the July 2024 edition of The Director and read many of the articles.  One that interested me was authored by Curtis Rostad and was titled “Prices vs. The Internet”.  I enjoyed the entire article and think the author makes a great point, but what really captivated me was his perception that almost…