Wal-Mart starts selling caskets, urns online

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

MILWAUKEE — The world's largest retailer wants to keep its customers even after they die.
Wal-Mart has started selling caskets on its website at prices that undercut many funeral homes, long the major seller of caskets.

The move follows a similar one by discount rival Costco, which also sells caskets on its site.

Wal-Mart (WMT), based in Bentonville, Ark., quietly put up about 15 caskets and dozens of urns on its website last week.

Prices range from $999 for models like "Dad Remembered" and "Mom Remembered" steel caskets to the mid-level $1,699 "Executive Privilege." All are less than $2,000, except for the Sienna Bronze Casket, which sells for $3,199.

Caskets ship within 48 hours. Federal law requires funeral homes to accept third-party caskets.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2009-10-28-walmart-sells-caskets-online_N.htm

[JuniperLea]

1. They have to keep up with Costco!

http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=20595&eCat=BC%7C20595&whse=BC&topnav

[Mrs. Overall]

2. But I wonder if the caskets contain lead and Chinese chemicals that might cause illness--oh wait...

[Auggie]

4. LOL

[Cleita]

6. That could be a valid concern.

Toxins could leak into the ground and pollute any nearby streams and bodies of water.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

8. Made in China?

[leanderj]

3. Caskets without TV or internet or GPS?

How low tech...

[tomm2thumbs]

5. Buy it for Halloween, Keep it for the Inevitable!

catchy, huh?

they got some winners too...
http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=casket&search_constraint=0&tc=0&ic=48_0&ref=+125874.425084&tab_value=27_All

[FormerDittoHead]

7. Can they keep them in stock? People are dying to get them! :-) n/t

sorry, couldn't resist.

[bulloney]

9. I've heard competition's pretty stiff, too.

[MineralMan]

10. Plain Pine Boxes -- $450

Here: http://www.kentcasket.com/index.htm

Or build your own for even less.

[AlbertCat]

11. How the fuck do you buy a casket online??????

Do you have to sign for it when it arrives in the mail?



Reminds me of the great great film "The Loved One"..... with Liberace as a casket salesman! Too funny!

[no_hypocrisy]

12. For their dead peasants?

[TommyO]

27. For the people trampled at Walmart on the day after Thanksgiving

[dipsydoodle]

13. Sort of posh ashtrays really

given their size.

[chatnoir]

14. Weird question but

it seems like the casket market in the US is mainly steel/metal whereas in the rest of the world, or at least in Europe, it's traditional wood.

Always wondered why that was. Wood doesn't seem to be that much more pricey than steel:

http://www.abettercasket.com/incEngine/

http://www.memorials.com/wood-caskets.php

[jenniferj]

29. In the UK we call them coffins and they are usually made from

wood...Though somepeople are looking at greener alternatives such as wicker...
The only steel coffin I have seen in the UK is the one containing the body of that Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who
was poisoned.

[chatnoir]

32. Now that you mention it

I recall it was even lead-lined and specially sealed due to the radioactivity.

But yeah, I've only ever noticed steel here for some reason.

[jenniferj]

35. We are also less inclined on the viewing of the body..

In the UK so the part that opens isn't usually needed.

[glinda]

15. Walmart is ruining America. They need to loose business and be shut down

mostly because they make their riches off the backs of Americans and the hardship they provide by having everyone pay their taxes for at least ten years after they build a new building. They suck. Commies.

[Tansy_Gold]

21. They aren't commies. they suck, but they are not communists.

Far from it.



Sheesh. "Commies" is not shorthand for "anyone I don't like."



Tansy Gold

[glinda]

31. You are right. They just want to put everyone out of business. So what does that make them?

They have even stated as much. They want to "control" where people buy everything. Through them!

[Tansy_Gold]

34. I'd say it makes them feudal aristo wanna-bes

And if you know your Dickens you know what happened to the aristos.

As I was writing on another thread -- if we don't even know enough about economics to know instinctively the difference between the Walton/Wal-Mart pigs and communism, how can we have an intelligent national discussion about the problems we've got? How can we seek solutions if we're calling greedy corporate pigs "commies"?

One of the great failures of our public schools over the past 50 years has been to neglect teaching an understanding of how an economy actually WORKS, in all its forms.


Tansy Gold

[glinda]

36. Thanks for the info as I only used this term once in my life and never more

[Stevenmarc]

16. They can turn the Walmarts they close into mausoleums so they can charge you into perpetuity

[zogofzorkon]

17. You should have charged them for this idea, its brilliant.

[CatholicEdHead]

18. I guess federal law is keeping Site to Store

to be rolling out caskets from the back of the store out to the front to your car. That would open some customers' eyes if that could happen. ;) Even more so this time of year.

[Lars39]

19. So, if you sign up for the 12 month plan, does Walmart take out a

Dead Peasant policy on you, too?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

20. Too expensive

We'll have to go to Ralph's for a coffee can to carry Donny's ashes.

[marasinghe]

22. oh, those cute waltons. always ahead of the curve.

what next, bounty hunters?
< cue theme from "fistful of dollars" >
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeFpM2OEWPs

[Kablooie]

23. Cool! Buy the whole set! Impress your friends!

You have your choice of:

Lady de Guadalupe Steel Casket

Pieta and Last Supper Steel Casket

Lovely in All Ways Stainless Steel Casket

Executive Privilege Steel Casket

Regal Wide Body Steel Casket

American Rose Steel Casket

American Patriot Steel Casket

Dad Remembered Steel Casket

Mom Remembered Steel Casket

[John Kerry VonErich]

37. WHAT??? NO KISS CASKET?!?

nt

[Kablooie]

24. Wow! Look at this! Lovely in All Ways!!

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=12568644

[Mind_your_head]

25. Walmart crushes EVERY SINGLE business format....every time

That's NOT a good thing.

[niceypoo]

26. Do their greeters get an employee discount?

[robcon]

28. It's good to get some competition in that market.

For too long the products have been way overpriced.

[MidwestRick]

30. Oh no

local casket makers will be put out of business.

[slackmaster]

33. What's the cheapest urn they have?