Cremation hurting the traditional funeral business

How will the increase in cremation and scattering of ashes affect the burial industry? In the case of funeral homes and cemeteries, it will cause them to raise prices. Some areas are seeing cremations rates close to 75%. These are localized to certain counties but the trend shows what is going to happen to the traditional funeral business. If you are a pallbearer for hire, you might want to start looking for new job training.

With cemeteries, it makes the cost of plots go up because the employees have to be paid. Cemeteries are a business just like any other business and they need to make money. Each cemetery has a fund for perpetual care of the graves. If they don't get these funds, the graves get grown over and lost some where along the way. Cemeteries can be paved over and have during road construction if they aren't properly maintained for years. When they are allowed to revert back to their natural state, all record of their existence can be lost.

Funeral homes need to sell high profit caskets, flowers, and services to maintain their business. With less people using their service, each person who does decide on a traditional burial pays more. As with any service, the more it cost, the less people use it. The less people who use it makes it cost even higher until finally the service can no longer be offered because not enough people can afford it at that cost. Funeral homes in the are where you see high cremation rates are struggling.

In the end, burial we be a premium service even more expensive than it is today. The lack of money for an average family in today's economy will hasten the decline of the traditional burial. All things change and the burial in a cemetery of an embalmed body in a casket might soon be a thing of the past. No more horror movies where houses are haunted or night of the living dead.