August 18, 2004
By Jody Genessy
Deseret Morning News
Costco shopping lists everywhere could soon include a 36-roll package of toilet paper, a 360-piece plastic cutlery set, a 50-pound bag of enriched rice, a box of 60 pizza-flavored Bagel Bites and an 18-gauge steel, Neapolitan-blue-colored casket.
Call it morbid or masterful, but Costco Wholesale Corp. began test-marketing caskets at two Chicago warehouses this week ? a move that should add even greater depth to the firm's reputation for carrying sundry items with savings to die for.
It only remains to be seen if selling loved ones' final resting places in the same store where they market masses of meatballs, movies and mattresses is an idea that will end up 6 feet under or find eternal life at its 324 locations.
And, if you're wondering, no, the caskets don't come in 12-packs. This is one Costco product that won't be sold in bulk. Card-carrying members can choose from six Universal Casket Co. medium-weight models, priced at $799.99 with a 48-hour delivery time. They can be purchased in advance, too.
Salt Lake City Costco warehouse manager Louie Silveira isn't sure when or if the service will be available in Utah's six stores, but Silveira said the company will be "sensitive and respectful" in this endeavor.
"Honestly, we feel any time we can have a value for our members, we have an obligation to our membership," he said. "Without testing it, you never know how it's going to be received. . . . You're either the imitator or the innovator."
Admittedly biased, Silveira said he'd buy his casket from the warehouse "in a heartbeat."
Wendell Giles of Bountiful never thought Costco would offer mortuary services, but he said he'd "consider it" if the price and quality was right because funerals have become overpriced.
Sherilyn Mills of Taylorsville is among those who think extending membership benefits into the afterlife is "a little weird," she said. "I wouldn't buy one here."
Nor would Jean Bird, who was shopping ? but not for caskets ? Tuesday. "It seems a little strange to me," she said. "I don't think Costco is the place to do it." Her husband, Vernon Bird, joked that a pine box would be good enough for him, then added he'd "rather go through a funeral home."
Lance Larkin, president of Salt Lake City's Larkin Mortuary, remembers seeing caskets in a Sears catalog
decades ago, so he isn't surprised by a new casket vendor. He also recalls a discount casket business in Sugar House only lasting about six months in the 1990s.
"Where's the dignity in the whole thing?" he asked. "You can buy a box anywhere. There's a value to what we do."
Larkin warns of higher funeral costs ? in services, vaults, etc. ? if patrons go casket-shopping at places like Costco, which advertises potential savings of more than 30 percent. Caskets range in price at funeral homes from $300 to $20,000.
"There's plenty of ways to skin the cat," Larkin said. "You have to have a profit to stay in business."
Costco will counter that by referring buyers to participating mortuaries.
But at least one warehouse member doesn't plan on being buried in a Costco casket. A middle-aged man told his son he wants to be cremated.
Perhaps by then, Costco will sell urns, too.
