For about eight months, Salt Lake City's Casket Shoppe shook up the local death care business.
But David J. Cook said he had to close the retail casket store in April when local funeral home directors shook back.Cook opened his store in August 1997, and he said business was brisk for the first five months. Then local funeral homes started implementing what Cook calls a "sham discount package," and his business slowed to a crawl.
"I wasn't out to shut them down, and in no way could I," Cook said Monday. "I think, in the end, they had knee-jerk reaction, and that knee-jerk reaction became the sham discount."
Federal Trade Commission regulations say funeral homes cannot charge consumers a handling fee if they bring in a casket from an outside source. But Cook said local funeral directors met after he opened his store to learn about the "sham discount." To use it, Cook said, a home raises its price for services, then offers a discount back to the former price for a person who buys a casket from the home.
"About 85 percent of (local) funeral homes were instituting the package . . .," Cook said. "I think, in their minds, it was just a way to compete. But in reality, it wiped out any possibility of any competition in the funeral industry."
Cook filed about 150 complaints with the FTC, outlining difficulties he said families were having with local funeral homes.
But Jenkins-Soffe Mortuary's Kurt Soffe, who serves as president of the Utah Funeral Directors Association, said members of that organization did not try to force Cook to close his doors.
"I feel bad that he went out of business," Soffe said Monday. "I (also) feel bad, though, the way he approached his business, making accusations and allegations that were unfounded."
He said the state group did receive guidelines from the National Funeral Directors Association regarding what its members could do to compete with casket stores without breaking FTC rules. The state group reprinted those NFDA guide-lines in its newsletter, Soffe said, but that was the only way the issue was presented to members.
"For Mr. Cook to make these allegations, it's unfortunate," Soffe said. "I don't have any ill feelings toward Mr. Cook. . . . Third-party merchandisers have every right to exist, and they're here to stay."
The NFDA guidelines say a funeral home never should refuse service to a family that brings in a "third-party casket," discriminate against such a family or disparage the quality of the casket. However, the guideline document says funeral homes can offer discounts to customers who buy caskets from the homes.
Kelly Smith, public relations manager for the 15,000-member NFDA, said the guidelines came out in mid-March, and he thinks funeral directors have taken notice.
Many casket retailers nationwide are running into problems right now, he said, because funeral homes are offering low casket prices. And people rank price behind location, previous experience and reputation when choosing funeral services, Smith said.
"I don't think a majority of people want to go the do-it-yourself route . . .," he said Monday. "I just don't think the market out there was as big as third-party sellers first thought."
But both Soffe and Smith said the emergence of retail casket stores has provided a wake-up call to funeral home directors.
"The emphasis on consumer awareness that third-party casket (sellers) have brought has probably helped some funeral directors, because it probably caused them to look at their own casket prices," Smith said.
Whether funeral homes can continue to use discount packages may be addressed in 1999, when the FTC is scheduled to review its Funeral Rule.
Cook said he thinks the government will alter the rule. And either way, both he and Soffe expect some-one to start another casket store in the Salt Lake area within a year.
"I'd do it all over again," Cook said. "I think I learned a lot about it, and I think I did wake up a lot of funeral directors in this valley to reality."