That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, Wal-Mart, the giant discount chain has started selling caskets online. The conglomerate, which uses its enormous buying power to obtain goods at substantially low prices, made the move after its competitor, Costco, started offering caskets to its customers.
The models are all under $2,000 (with the exception of one model that retails for $3,200), which drastically undercuts many mom and pop funeral home prices around the country. Of course, this is some that’s not uncharacteristic of Wal-Mart. It has a reputation among communities for undercutting the locally owned and operated stores, resulting in a loss of business for these stores.
We at Une Belle Vie have mixed feelings about this latest move by Wal-Mart. On the one hand, this big box store is coming into a very traditional industry that is tasked with caring for the bereaved and handling a funeral in a very personal way. The addition of Wal-Mart to the mix seems almost counterintuitive.
However, on the other hand, everyone deserves to be able to afford a fitting memorial for their loved ones and if Wal-Mart makes it affordable for a family to purchase a beautiful casket for their loved one, then who are we to judge?
Click here to read a testimony from one funeral director regarding his (mostly positive) experience dealing with the delivery of a casket from Wal-Mart.
What do you think? Are you glad to have an affordable alternative to funeral home prices when it comes to caskets or are do you think Wal-Mart is just being trying to get as much money as they can from any and every industry?
Subscribe to Our Community
In the past several years I have grown to severely dislike Wal-Mart. They way, as you mentioned, that they run out local entrepreneurs and suck the soul out of cute, main street towns is disgusting. I can see a benefit to their ability to buy bulk and sell cheap, but it’s not for me.