Businessweek Funeral Home Analysis

The market for funerals today is beginning to shrink and downsize due to the costs and added expenses that are incurred when planning a casket funeral as supposed to choosing cremation. The funeral industry accounts for roughly over $16 billion dollars in sales every year, and in recent years has seen a decline in the services being provided for individuals choosing to use caskets and burials, because the average cost of a funeral today is roughly $7,075. With the merger proposal of both Stewart Enterprises, and Service Corporation International which are both leading the industry, there will be a market dominance that will crush a majority of these privately owned funeral homes.
In today’s funeral home market it is comprised of small independent homes, with approximately 86% of them being private and the remaining 14% are publically traded. With this in mind, only a small portion of the multi-billion dollar industry is accounted for by large businesses, with a larger portion of the $16 billion in sales contributing to smaller, privately owned homes. Since 2007 till 2012 there has been a steady increase in privately owned funeral homes closing down, because the costs and expenses of leasing the property, including services are just too steep to manage. If the FTC allows the merge of both Stewart Enterprises and Service Corporation, the market for funeral homes will shrink, and they will start to monopolize the funeral home market. This poses a moral dilemma, because when families are trying to pay respect and homage to their loved ones, they do not need to stress about the price being fixed, and getting over charged by these larger companies like SCI and Stewart Enterprises. With the Corporation price ranging from anywhere between $3,000 to $170,000, and the average cost of the just the service alone without the burial is around $6,000. This is costly when considering you are burying your loved one, and although it is a one-time cost, it has been a deciding