Business

Connecticut looking at funeral home food option

By Funeral Director Daily / March 3, 2020 /

It is kind of hard to believe but the State of Connecticut has yet to approve the idea of serving anything other than hot drinks and water in funeral homes.  They are one of only two states – Pennsylvania being the other – that has not allowed this action.  However, that may be changing as…

Funeral business is capitalism at its best

By Funeral Director Daily / March 2, 2020 /

You will seldom see me inflict my political beliefs into Funeral Director Daily but it is hard at this time of the 2020 election cycle not to watch television and get some type of information on the political happenings.  And, I won’t go into candidates or political parties, but the current divisiveness between capitalism and…

Kreamer Funeral Home moving into 4th generation of service

By Funeral Director Daily / February 26, 2020 /

The Kreamer Funeral Home was established in 1915 by brothers William E. and Wilbur Kreamer in Stewartstown, Pennsylvania.  According to a history on the company web-site, William’s son, Robert, assumed control of the firm in 1958 and his son, Steven, became the 3rd generation owner and operator in 1984.  The Kreamer family now serves in…

Seeing more trends in pet care

By Funeral Director Daily / February 25, 2020 /

Those of you who have followed this publication for any length of time know that I like to hypothesize on what I see are trends in business.  And, you’ve also seen my post sometimes in reference to serving on the board of the University of Minnesota. One of my fun things to do now is…

Do the Diligence. . . a cautionary tale

By Funeral Director Daily / February 25, 2020 /

Even before Robert Waltrip bought that second location in Houston in the early 1960’s there were lots of funeral homes that changed hands.  And, I’m guessing that over the years about 99% of those business transactions, especially the transferring of a funeral home to a new owner in a small community, went off without a…

An “Above and Beyond” funeral director

By Funeral Director Daily / February 21, 2020 /

Glen Davis drove school bus in his small Minnesota community for 55 years.  Starting in 1949 he was still driving and finally retired in 2005.  By that time he was driving the grandchildren of those school children he had driven in 1949. And, Glen Davis was like a lot of people small town funeral directors…

Does a “One Hour Prior” visitation serve its purpose?

By Funeral Director Daily / February 18, 2020 /

I attended a memorial service yesterday.  The format of the service has become pretty standard in our community.  The service was for a lady/wife/mother of which I know the husband to some extent.  I consider him a really nice guy and attended the service because I wanted to let him know that I care and…

Fires in the funeral business

By Funeral Director Daily / February 17, 2020 /

It is always sad to see when fire destroys any business, but for us in the funeral business it is heartbreaking to see our colleagues go through something that we hope never happens to us. Over the weekend we learned of February fires that destroyed at least two of our colleagues places of business.  This…

Dollars and Sense — The great debate over online pricing

By Funeral Director Daily / February 17, 2020 /

I noticed last week that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be seeking comment on whether to make changes to the Funeral Rule.  This is probably the least the FTC will do and there probably could be more to come.  In their notice, they mentioned areas of funeral services and pricing where they explicitly seek…

A co-op funeral home defying the odds

By Funeral Director Daily / February 11, 2020 /

Co-operative businesses were once very common place in America.  Especially in rural, agricultural America where co-operatives came together with dairy farmers banding together to produce milk products such as cheese and cream for the member farmers, or for area residents to co-operate to bring electricity to far flung farms, or for a mutual benefit society…