Word: loewen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Loewen Group and the other big consolidators know full well that family members make funeral arrangements in a daze, often picking a particular home because it happens to be close by or has a familiar name or once buried some other member of the family. Out of grief or a desire not to seem cheap at such a weighty juncture, survivors jettison the consumer instincts they would most certainly employ when shopping for a new car. As a result, funeral homes traditionally haven't had to worry much about price competition. In its annual 10K report to the Securities...
According to a survey by the Memorial Society of North Texas, which seeks to help members arrange economical funerals, homes owned by Loewen, SCI and Louisiana-based Stewart Enterprises (the third largest funeral company) were consistently more expensive than their independent competitors. In Amarillo, Texas, for example, a Loewen home charged $1,638 for the basic services of its funeral director and staff--the "nondeclinable" fee allowed by the Federal Trade Commission, known more casually in the industry as the "cover charge." The other three Amarillo funeral homes in the survey charged an average of $863. A TIME price survey...
...fact, prices can rise so fast that the independent funeral-home operators targeted by Mitford's first book suddenly find themselves to be death-care heroes. Rising prices have begun to erode the industry's historic immunity from bargain hunting. Consider Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where Loewen controls all but three funeral homes from Hyannis to Provincetown. (It offered to buy two of those three as well, but their owners declined.) The Massachusetts attorney general became concerned enough about Loewen's near monopoly to require the company to divest itself of three homes, a move of questionable value given that Loewen...
...consolidators have driven prices so high in some markets that they have opened new opportunities for the growing alternative-funeral industry. Russell Moore, a cultural anthropologist, located his Casket Gallery International--which sells low-priced caskets--on the outskirts of Dallas. He based it there precisely because SCI, Loewen and Stewart had such a huge presence in the region. "Many families are literally being priced out of the funeral industry," he says. "They're choosing cremation, or they're trying to do it themselves...
...Loewen counters that the average Loewen funeral generates only about $300 profit--although this average includes everything from direct cremations to premium traditional services and excludes all cemetery costs. Revenue from existing homes increases only 3% to 5% a year, he says, and he notes that Loewen also spends "huge amounts" to upgrade new additions. "It used to be thought that funerals were a big-ticket item," he says, "but really the dollars aren't that...