How one casket company is disrupting the funeral industry

it's brought New Life to an industry you  might describe as morabund an online casket   company complete with a sense of humor  with Luke Burbank we pay our respects   this is one of my favorite pictures of my  dad Christo AYOUB was the kind of person who   believed his treasures were stored in heaven his  main concern was to just bring light to people   that were not aware of God but that also meant  according to his daughter Carol Sfeir that here   on Earth in Orange California finances were tight  when it came time for Christo's funeral so she   turned to the place many people do to try to find  a deal did anybody in your family initially think   that you had lost your mind when you said I found  a casket on the internet and it's more affordable   yeah did they think oh wait Carol's losing it  yeah a little bit facing mounting costs Carol   learned she didn't have to buy the casket from  the funeral home did you even know that was an   option no I asked because the price was so you  know outrageous you can only save in so many   areas so you just have to cut Corners where you  can and her search for savings led her to Josh   and Liz Seigel's company Titan caskets there are  two large Cascade manufacturers that control 85   production and they only sell to funeral homes and  when a family walks into a funeral home they're   often not shopping around they don't know what  things should cost so those Dynamics over time   have meant that there's massive markups on caskets  I have a casket company yeah but sitting in your   dining room the Seigels are looking to as they  say disrupt the casket industry and they want to   see all the different features and they love the  red color by changing how people buy them and what   they pay the average American Funeral costs about  ten thousand dollars the average casket more than   2 000 Titan caskets average around one thousand  we see ourselves more as providing a service and   education for people who contact us we want  everybody ultimately to feel like they've had   a choice you have to buy a casket from a funeral  home the answer is no and that choice is largely   due to an obscure Federal Trade Commission  ruling from 1984 called the funeral rule which   says basically that funeral homes must provide  customers with a list of prices for their services   and allow them to buy a casket from wherever  they choose including these days from Amazon   well this right here is our copper Orion series  casket we're Titan co-founder Scott Ginsberg got   his start as technology has changed you know  this industry hasn't changed in over 100 years   why not but is the real difference you're just  not marking these up as much that's correct I've   been up marking them up and we still have a great  company and we're not you know taking advantage of   the consumer we're asked all the time how strong  a Titan casket boxes let me show you I can sit on   it I can even lay on it Titan says they now sell  thousands of caskets a year direct to Consumers   but even with that success they may be trying to  grow in an industry that pardon the pun is dying   cremation right now is the dominant method of  disposing of a dead human body in the United   States almost 60 percent of people are cremated  and not all those people need a casket Caitlin   Doughty is a mortician and writer who says  Americans should really reconsider the funeral   and so when you take away the embalming and you  take away the casket it's kind of like what is   the role of the funeral director she says the  sooner we get comfortable talking about death   and dying the better the decisions we'll be able  to make I absolutely think what Titan is doing to   offer lower prices is important because everybody  should be able to make really informed choices   so this is uh my Mom and my Dad and  Carol Sfeir would agree she says   an informed choice and a little internet  clicking helped her honor her beloved dad   it is really the only casket that suited  him so I believe he would be happy with that

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 180,261

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, caskets, funeral homes

Id: Y1tDYY6Xnto

Length: 4min 37sec (277 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 30 2023