Recently Apple was named the sponsor of this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. They will be replacing Pepsi, who has been the sponsor for several years. It occurred to me, and it was not surprising, that this is the business of new “information technology” replacing the old standardized American “product innovation, manufacturing, distribution” business of days gone by. Here is a short article about the change. It wasn’t the only “change” I noticed recently. Just on Friday, we printed a […]
I have a son that works in the automotive industry and we’ve discussed their lines of revenue quite often. For instance the average dealership has about six primary lines of revenue – new car sales, used car sales, the service or repair center, a collision repair center, a leasing center, and a financing center. At any given time some of those lines may be bringing in revenue. . sometimes dependent on the economy and supply chain. In the funeral home […]
Earlier this week California Governor Gavin Newsom quietly signed a bill that now becomes law which includes disposition of the dead human body via “human composting”. According to this article from KABC Television of Los Angeles supporters say it’s an environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional end-of-life options. The law does not go into effect until 2027. At this time, however, it marks California as the 5th state that has allowed Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) as a legal way of human disposition. […]
Wilbert Funeral Services, Inc., (WFSI) the leading provider of burial vaults and cremation-related products and services in North America, is pleased to announce the launch of their new Cremation Choices Catalog on October 1st. Wilbert Merchandising Manager, Mike Devaney stated, “We are excited about the new expanded catalog. We are adding 80 new urns and mementos to our line of over 300 cremation products. Our goal is to give our licensee network and the funeral home customers they serve the […]
Back when I was in mortuary school I read a book entitled something like “Who takes care of the Caretaker“. While there are other books with titles similar to that published later than the 1970’s I cannot locate the book I read, nor do I remember the author of it. Quite frankly, that’s not real important. I also don’t remember any of the content of the book and that’s not real important either. What I do remember is the name […]
We learned late last week in this press release that Funeral Directors Life Insurance Company (FDLIC) of Abilene, Texas, acquired the American Life and Annuity Company (ALAC) of Hot Springs, Arkansas. According to the press release “effective immediately, FDLIC will work to support existing ALAC policyholders and Arkansas funeral homes”. Again, according to the press release, “President and CEO of FDLIC Kris Seale and ALAC President Claude Holloway worked closely together to ensure a smooth transition process for both companies, […]
Propel Funeral Partners, the public company that owns and operates funeral homes, cremation facilities, cemeteries, and related infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand, announced their Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) results in late August, and did so by showing growth all across their reporting numbers. The company that began in 2012 with 278 funeral services reported 16,537 funeral services in FY22 which is an 18% increase over the 13,916 services conducted in FY2021. The company that now has 144 locations also […]
One of the few positives to come out of the Covid-19 pandemic may be the way that funeral directors were perceived by the public. There’s no doubt that during the pandemic funeral directors were seen as unselfish heroes in many communities for the way they handled the high number of deaths. And it may be, that just when we need it most, that positive public perception may help the profession by supplying more trained and skilled workers just when we […]
A sale, or commerce if you will, occurs when a willing buyer and a willing seller reach agreement on a price for a good or service and then that price is paid from the buyer to the seller to mark the transaction. While we don’t always think of it in that term, transactions like this happen millions of times every day. . . . from the purchase of grocery items, to the purchase of fuel, to the purchase of businesses. […]
Recently I came across this article from the Insurance NewsNet based on a survey from health insurer, Ethos. The article was based on what traditionally taboo subjects would people be willing to talk about. Turns out that 81% of the people were willing to talk about Money, but at the bottom of the list came “Death” which only 32% of the survey subjects were willing to talk about. In between those extreme numbers came Mental Health -56%, Sex – 48%, […]
