Now you can buy a casket at Wal-Mart

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One time while web surfing for caskets and funeral equipment-just for the heck of it-found a website where you could buy YOUR OWN crematory "retort"from the website-(it was $20,000 and consumed 4.5 million CF of natural gas per hour)the website said "propane and fuel oil models available"And the processor that ground up the ashes so they could be put into an urn-as it comes from the retort there are large peices of bone and such has to ground up into the powder.And of course urns,cremation caskets and other things.-even the rake to rake the ashes from the furnace-and "infant cremation pans" for infant size caskets and containers.Oh yes when I spoke to the Vita Mix servicecenter-they spoke of a VM 3600 that was used as a cremation "processor"-the VM folks said the blades were bent and worn and the container had many dents in it.Oh hes the cremation retort ad copy says cremation cycle process-microprocessor controlled-took and hour and a half for the average adult body and contanier.They even said the whole cycle is automatic-and a relative could start the process if desired"
 
"Funerals are a rip-off"

Hunter, like everyone else, you have strong opinions on this topic, however they are just that-----opinions.

The truth is that it is very expensive to operate a fully staffed 24/7, professional facility that is at the ready no matter when a family should call. Therefore the cost of maintaining said facility is spread to every single family that uses it AND (now here's the shocker) it must also make a profit for the owner to want to keep it running. WOW, what a concept----capitalism?

Sudsman, there are "green" cemeteries that do not require any sort of container, and in any event, I would tend to agree with you in that there is nothing wrong with the idea of "returning to the earth".

I would also like to caution my fellow AW.org members to try and temper urges of silliness and bad humor as I can assure you there is someone here that is dealing with the death of a loved one, and would not appreciate attempts at humor just now. For those of us that have lost loved ones, there is nothing more grating on the nerves than to hear something off-color about those that have passed-on.
 
One should buy/spend/enjoy what they can afford, not more.

Class and dignity can not be bought at any price.

There is no shame in not having; especially now that hunger and bad economic times have hit this country.

But me personally, I'm not one to put on airs or a show to out-do the Jones-es. Do what the family needs to honor and mourn, but not enough that the funeral gets a spread in the local rag--er newspaper.

Al things in moderation.
 
Oh, I have no argument with proit and capitalism...

I have NO problem with capitalism and profits. And I agree with you, Gyrafoam, that fixed costs would get spread. When I refer to a funeral as a 'rip off' I was thinking more along the lines of incredible costs for ornate coffins etc. Obviously this is personal choice and folks should spend that money if they want to. But in my opinion - and really all these things ARE personal opinions - it is a waste of money to do more than the minimum for (say) a box that is going to be buried in the ground and rot. Or to buy a piece of land to bury a box in, when cremation will produce a small amount of ashes that may be kept or scattered. But again, my opinion. [I made the equal comment about weddings; I knew a coworker a number of years ago that I believe spent more than 40K on a wedding. When houses were in the 200,000 range where I was living. I thought 'geez if you'd spend 10,000 on a modest wedding you could give this cash to your kid and she could have a down payment on a nice house, which would be forever.' Do what you want to do, is my feeling, but do it because YOU want to not to keep up with perceptions that you HAVE to do this because everyone who is anyone lives his life this way.

I'm simply saying what matters to me.

As for Walmart coffins, I really have no opinion. I personally would find it a little odd to "bring my own coffin" to a mortuary. But who knows?
 
Yeah, buying your own merchandise and then expecting someone else to perform a service is kind of like bringing your own food to a restaurant and expecting them to prepare it, or calling in air conditioning installers to install a unit purchased elsewhere.

Batesville Casket Co. manufactures a TOL called the Promethian. You can get it in gold or silver plate. That is the type of casket Michael Jackson's family selected. The interior is available in four "jewel-tone" colors of the finest velvet. That casket is very expensive.

What I have found over the years is that certain ethnic groups and a certain cross-section of society demand (what they percieve as the) very best and they won't hear of anything else. They usually have the very best of everything during life, as well.

Personally a plain Jewish type funeral is what I have planned.
No embalming/viewing. Committee from the Synagogue to ritually bathe my body and dress it in a plain linen shroud. A plain pine box with to interior whatsoever and no metal parts. And a simple Graveside service. The cemetery that contains our "family plot" requires grave "support" which is in the form of a simple fiberglass "box" that is lowered on top of the casket. The casket rests on the earth and the box surrounds the top and sides preventing collapse of the grave as the casket decomposes over time.

It has been good for countless generations of my family and it's good enough for me.
 
When my dad died many years ago, I as a 13 year old remember the funeral director telling my mother. "We will do such a good job in preparing him, that you can dig him up in 50 years and he will still look as nice as he does today."

Even at that time, and in my youth I thought "EWWW--Why would we want to."
I don't really have a problem personally with cremation as it is "from dust you came and dust you shall return" just speeding up the process. Buy my mother is stedfast against it in any way.

I started this thread not because I wanted to be disrespectful to anyone that may be going through a difficult time, but more to show how Wal-mart has to have their hands in everything.

Gyrafoam, Batesville is one of the best and most well known casket companies. My cousin is a welder at their factory in Jefferson City, MO.
 
Walmart DOES have their hand in everything...

....because they are a corporation trying to make money.

Like or dislike their other philosophies, that's the goal in capitalism: to MAKE money (to add value and produce wealth).

I go back and forth on Walmart. If I buy an item such as a sack of flour at Walmart that is significantly less than my local King Soopers (Kroger) is that bad? Kroger is the seventh largest retailer in the USA, so while it is not in Walmart's league, it is hardly a "mom and pop" store.

I will do everything to patronize my local stores - there's a hardware store in my town that I will go out of my way to buy things from, because their selection is tremendous. I sometimes pay the same as (say) Home Depot, sometimes significantly more, and sometimes less. But to me, I'm paying for the store in this instance as it is a genuine small business.

I don't like Walmart's philosophies of dictating to its suppliers that it MUST outsource to China. Because it does. Then again, is that any different than a 'green' retailer dictating to its suppliers what they can and can't do in their industrial processes? You might argue that "green" is better but who knows? At one time margarine was said to be far better than butter, and more doctors smoked camels than any other brand.

I don't know. In the mean time, I do my darndest to buy US manufactured products, because THAT I know keeps an industrial base here and American factory workers employed. As for retailers like Walmart, I just don't know. Their stores are really awful and hard to shop in -- but I don't know one department store I'd say was EASY to shop in. The other big department store in my area, Target, is even worse IMHO than Walmart, and I can honestly say I hate shopping there even more!
 
How about... ask a licensed Funeral Director

(that would be me),and I'll be glad to tell you the un-varnished truth about my industry. I'm certainly not ashamed about working for one of the (now) "Big 2" death care corporations. The third "Big 3" was purchased a few weeks ago by number 1, SCI. I work for #2..Stewart Enterprises of Jefferson, LA.

Funerals and other celebratory rituals are entirely controlled by the end-consumer. There are some aspects of a modern traditional funeral service which are a mandatory part of the service and therefore part of the charges. But the casket, embalming, service in your choice of venue are purely optional. If you can find a cemetery (and you can) that will accept your un-embalmed un-casketed remains for interment, we'll reverently and respectfully inter you there. I am "green burial" certified. There are many "green" cemeteries in the US, it hasn't caught on in the US yet, but it will. There's also a new process (which may never catch on) which involves dissolving the body through the use of alkaline hydrolysis.

And yes, it's i-n-t-e-r-m-e-n-t, not "internment". Internment is what the US did to it's citizens of Japanese ancestry in 1942 in various internment camps throughout the US. Interment is burial. Just so ya know.

So, rather than speculate or offer personal opinion, just ask someone who works in the business of providing care for the deceased and their families. It ain't quite as easy as you think.
 
Steve's information (and he, like me, is in the death-care business) in this posting is spot-on, especially that part about "have a plan". We're all going to die, that much is known. You certainly don't have to pay for your funeral/cremation/disposal of some sort in advance, but for pity's sake, let someone else in your circle of family or friends know what to do when that time comes..and it will. Possibly sooner rather than later. I'm sure that both Steve and I have sat down with grieving families who will tell us "...but Grandma was only 90...we thought we'd have a few more months or years with her..."

Really??

Grandma was lucky..you may not be.

It's not the type of thing people like to think about...one's own mortality. But planning ahead will make it easier on those you leave behind. Stop putting it off, and have a valid will and health-care power of attorney drawn up. All states have some form of attorney organization that will do it at a reduced cost..check the Internet, or call around.

If you're in a male partnership, make sure your paperwork is iron-clad. Nothing makes loving families suddenly meaner and greedier than a death.
 
Not a department store

Walmart, Target, Kmart, etc aren't department stores.

Department stores have actual departments, staffed by people knowledgeable about the goods specific to that department.

Macy's is a department store. Sears is a department store.

Walmart and its competitors are more like discount markets. Everything is really in one space, separated into blocks of aisles. If one could find a Walmart employee knowledgeable about the products, and actually willing to share such knowledge, I imagine that might be grist for the Guinness Book of World Records ;-).

A national chain of stores in and of itself isn't a bad thing. But stores like Walmart and Starbucks have adopted extremely aggressive competitive policies. The classic story of a Walmart or a Starbucks moving into a community, then underpricing and out-advertising the local competition, drawing business away until the local stores give up. Then when the local population is a captive audience, the big aggressive chain store raises its prices to recoup its profits.

Walmart takes it a step further. Its slogan is "Low Prices, Always". But the truth is that most of Walmart's prices, once it's driven the locals out of business, are the same or higher than those at other retailers. Only a few bottom of the line "entry level" products are truly priced lower than anybody else. These heavily advertised and prominently displayed at the ends of aisle or at islands between aisles. But venture down an aisle looking for a slightly less basic version of the product, and you'll probably be paying more than you would if you shopped around first.
 
A friend of mine in Georgia is involved with the Reef Ball Project. For the memorial balls, the cremains are mixed with the non-toxic concrete and poured into a mold with an inflated balloon in the center. When the ball is dry, even the largest size can be towed with a canoe, if desired, or strapped to a board and pulled behind a speed boat to where it is to be positioned. The balloon is deflated and the reef ball sinks to the sand. The family can take part in making the ball and then taking it out for positioning. Because they have openings on the sides, currents wash through them but don't move them. Many parts of the world are using them with or without cremains to help establish artificial reefs to protect shorelines. Plants, coral and shellfish establish themselves on the outer surfaces and mobile life forms seek shelter inside. Because the cremains are not scattered, the idea has even won acceptance from religions that were against cremation and scattering of the ashes because they feel that the physical remains have to be kept together. I think it's a way to keep helping the world after you leave, not that some people won't be helping just by leaving.
 
Funerals and Department Stores

First, I didn't mean to offend when I said 'funerals are a rip off.' Certainly, what is done at a funeral is driven by the consumer. I happen to think that folks make bizarre choices with how much to spend on weddings and funerals, and I couldn't do that.

Second, I have seldom ever found anyone in a department store (using sudsmaster's definition) who is knowledgeable about his or her department, at least, not since about 1990 or so. It is horrible. In general, the retail experience in America is gone.

As for Walmart/Starbucks, I agree. The first time I went into a Starbucks - which believe it or not, wasn't until 1998 or so - I was unimpressed. As for Walmart, I also agree re: pricing.
 
i bought a funeral plot

complete with casket etc when i was 18 years old. took me 3 years to pay it off. this was in the 70's and can't remember the price.

i gave it away to my uncle when he died and it's the best gift i ever gave anyone! beautiful cemetary and my uncle is now buried only one mile from where my home is.

i will go to my grave being glad i did that for him, he had no where to be buried and no one else in my "lovely" family cared!

except i won't be going to my grave, i don't have one anymore and i couldn't care! gonna give my body to science, let the medical students at U.C. hack away on it! maybe they will find a cure for "obsessive frigidaire collecting syndrome"!
 
Well, just so you know------not everybody is accepted into the anatomical donor program. If no one needs your body at the time, it can be refused. Now, that can really put the family of the deceased on the spot.
 
Tell me about it...my grandmother died over Memorial Day Weekend 2008. Our family is a "donate the body to science" family with later memorial service. My aunt, who lived nearby, phoned the undertaker and the local medical school (Cleveland, Oh...maybe it was CWRU on Saturday. Anyway, with the long weekend and all, the medical school didn't get around to calling back until Tuesday, at which point it was too late and we had the body cremated. Our tradition is to gather and scatter the ashes in a meaningful place...we did that in a blueberry patch at my aunt's....my great grandmother we scattered at a county park in Tulsa County, OK. She had earlier worked on the committee to form that park or some such thing.
 
Funeral ceremonies are for the survivors, but the planning

is for the living. Not the dead. They are already in the next life.

My parents were shocked to their core when they told my brother and me how they wanted their remains to be handled and the funeral ceremonies conducted.

I agreed and promised to do my duty, although, personally, if that (insert worst possible insult) church they go to should burn to the ground with every single christianist in the congregation and their (insert insult, see above) pastor sealed inside, my only regret would be that they'd all die of smoke inhalation before they could burn to death, alive.

Still, that is irrelevant, their wishes are what counts. So, putting aside my own feelings, I said yes.

My super-duper-ultra-right-wing-christianist brother hit the ceiling. No way, no how, uh-huh were still usable body parts to be removed first. Under no circumstances. He'd prevent it.

Ditto their cremation, afterwards.

And so on.

In the end, my parents had every single possible (and many near-impossible) scenario pre-configured, written out by their lawyer and brought to the attention of the local court. The local hospitals, the funeral home responsible, their church (may they all die of Hodgkin's with an allergy to opiates), the crematorium, the mausoleum...right on down to which version of the Bible, which verses, which sermon, which hymns, who speaks, who doesn't, etc...

I would have carried out their wishes because I had promised, not because I agreed with them on many points. My brother caused them much distress on a topic which needs must be discussed at a time when all are healthy and well, not when emotions are out of control and grief governs.

I know, when the time comes, he will make things difficult despite the clear rules my parents laid out. No idea what to do then, christianists don't give a tinker's damn about laws and agreements...but that church only get's a substantial donation if my folks' funerals are held in accordance with their wishes. That is, I think, a smart move. You can always count on christianists to put money ahead of any and everything else.

Oh, and, yes - the church has signed a release in advance, that I will be permitted to attend the funeral with my partner and may visit them at the mausoleum (it would be on church burial grounds, sigh) at will. That one cost them $10,000, upfront. Just love me them christianists, yes I do.
 
Keven,

Even though I strongly disagree with your feelings about Christianity, I must congratulate you on the way you have decided to honor your parents wishes. Tell your idiot brother to "shut the fock up", and tell him to kiss your lily white arse. Hopefully your parents have put you in charge, and not that twit and his spouse.
 
Tim,

I think you are confusing the terms "Christian" and "christianist".
I am a Christian, tho' certainly far, far to the left of most American Christians.
"christianist" is a neologism for those gay-bashing, self-righteous, ultra-nationalistic people who define their love of God through hatred of the other.

Big difference. My parents' church is filled with the most hateful, horrible monsters to ever walk this earth, their approach to gays, lesbians and transgender is beyond belief. Like many gay people, I have been horribly treated by many American "Christians" and so now use the term "christianist" to make clear that not all Christians are like that. Sadly, as the battles here over the years have shown, an awful lot of us don't know the term and don't understand that you don't have to be a self-hating gay.

Thank you for your kind words, no, after seeing my brother and his family react to the last emergency, I realized that they would eventually succeed either in having my parents overturn me as executor or they would fight me to the last dime after my parents' death...so I asked my parents to have a neutral, third party put in charge. They'll have a very hard time of it going against her will.
 

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