Latest / On Deathcare / Equipment Heists, Large Cemetery Sales, and the Direct Cremation Question

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Equipment Heists, Large Cemetery Sales, and the Direct Cremation Question · On Deathcare

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I am Tony Russo from On Deathcare and this is The Rest,
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: your weekly rundown of news from around funeral service.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Got a bunch of quick hits this week that we're going to kind of run right through as
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: the summer winds down.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Not a ton of big news that I'm going to share here,
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: although I do have a couple of stories that I want to preview to get you guys
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: to subscribe.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you have not subscribed to the newsletter, please go to ondeathcare.com.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: That is where I publish everything that I write.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this show, as a matter of fact, is sponsored by my paid subscribers.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if you go to On Deathcare, you'll have the opportunity to subscribe.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And after you subscribe, it will say, how much do you want to pay?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: The options go from $0 per month to more than $0 per month.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Any of those is perfectly acceptable,
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: but the paid subscribers are the ones who make everything I do possible.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have the means, please consider coming on as a paid subscriber.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get into it.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: This week,
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: a man named Christopher Michael Johnson of Largo,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Florida,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: was taken into custody on counts of breaking and entering and two counts
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: of first degree theft of property in Alabama.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: He had been on a theft spree from funeral homes and he was taking
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: stretchers and Out
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: of open transport vehicles and then kind of reselling them online.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And there are so many things like, first of all, that that there is an after not.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, there's an aftermarket sale place for for a lot of this equipment.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the idea that someone would be stealing them and then just selling them
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: in like Facebook marketplace or if someone like knocked on your door and said, hey.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he got caught and everything,
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: it looks like everybody's going to get restored or
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: at least some judicial satisfaction.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the underreported things was that he got caught by these flock cameras
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: that are apparently part of a larger national discussion.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think whether you are a pro,
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't really thought about flock cameras very much,
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: but whether you're a pro or anti-flock camera,
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: you do have to wonder if that is the best use of it.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: They caught this guy and I'm glad that,
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: you know, but he's still like, you know, whatever, $7,000 worth of equipment.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they spent $40,000 catching him in all of this,
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: all these high tech plate reader and flock camera technology.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's just an interesting, it's an interesting juxtaposition.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like how, how much are we pay?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: How much are we willing to pay?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: To stop criminals,
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: especially a criminal like this who,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they didn't catch him with 12 transport stretchers.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: They just caught him with whatever, one or two that he recently had stolen.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: He had offloaded all the other ones already.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an interesting problem, an interesting question, something at least worth discussing.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I did a little bit of reporting on it on my own,
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: and there is a link to that in the show notes.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you are a subscriber,
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: then last week you got from me a story that I wrote about large cemetery sales.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it's something that I had teased on this show before,
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: and I want to just circle back and bring it to everyone's attention.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is supposedly a run-up to...
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: If not an unprecedented, certainly a significant concentration in large cemetery sales.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: EverStory started a new brand actually called EverMark that was specifically aimed
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: at selling estates.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I reached out to the folks at Matthews and I spoke to Michael Eddie Herrera.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Who runs their cemetery products division.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he said that he's getting,
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: you know, a lot of requests and a lot of interest in these large sales.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about not only private mausoleums,
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: but also the The walk-around mausoleums and other ways that people are spending
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: a lot of money on memorialization.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I was really interested in the fact that it was tied to wealthy people.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, there is more wealth on the verge of changing hands than there has been
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: in quite some time in this country.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know,
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: everyone is looking to make sure that they,
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: you know, they help change hands in the best way possible.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I spoke with Kendra Stevens,
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: who runs EverStory's, who is EverStory's vice president of sales and marketing.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And what she said to me is,
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: they have they just had the big turnover with with Stonemore and everything.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And she's been there about two years and this has just been on her list
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: and she hasn't gotten to it.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And SCI said something very similar during their recent earnings call.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's really just making encouraging decisions.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Salespeople to go for these larger sales.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: If there's a large family, this is something that can make sense.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: If several generations are getting older,
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: this is an opportunity to kind of get everybody together.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And also,
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: and something I touched on in the story,
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: but Something that can't be mentioned enough,
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: there are a prodigious number of urns on a prodigious number of mantles
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: that are going to need to be dealt with one way or another.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not talking maybe not tomorrow, but I'm sure you're starting to see some of it.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that's only going to increase when you get to,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Mom's house and you've got dad and then grandpa and grandma and grandpa
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: and grandma all on the...
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: All on the mantel place, it's time to make a decision.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's an encouraging thing for everyone,
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: for everyone that's in the memorialization space.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yes,
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: entering and earning urns in mausoleums or in niches are great suggestions,
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: but also there are the parting stone type things,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: other ways that cremated remains can be disposed of,
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of it is going to start happening really soon.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's definitely worth keeping your eye on.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a link to that original story also in the show notes.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: As you may have seen in the newsletter last week,
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Foundation Partners dialed back its tulip cremation brand.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was an attempt at a national brand that they weren't able to sustain,
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: and now they just cut it back to Northern California where it was founded.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was a direct cremation company in Northern California that they purchased
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: and tried to expand on.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I would like a little bit of help with this.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've reached out to a couple
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: of people who've given me some really interesting insights and many of them wonder,
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: my question was, how do you fail at a business like this?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this seems like one of the hardest ones to fail at.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And people told me that there are things about running a direct cremation business
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: that are just radically different from running a funeral business.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know,
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry for the cheap shot,
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: but Foundation Partners doesn't believe in having executives who have run any kind
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: of funeral business.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So knowing that there's a subtle difference between running a funeral home
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: and running a direct cremation business was apparently lost on them.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Will it be lost on other people?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is it?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: The dream, I guess, is the private equity dream of a national direct cremation brand dead.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, SCI has Dignity Direct, so I guess that's...
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think a function of scale.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway,
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I would like to know from you if you would care to tell me what you think
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: the difference is between running what I'll just call for the sake of calling it
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: a traditional cremation business and a direct cremation business.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked to some people who were Really good at doing both.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I have a good sense of it, but I would love to have some more opinions.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to round out my research before I start to throw around observations from that.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: So reach out to me.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: I am bytonyrusso at gmail.com.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Questions,
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: comments,
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: but definitely if you have any insight to share on the differences between running
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: a direct cremation outfit and running a regular quote unquote funeral home,
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to hear them.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And of course,
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: there's a link to the foundation partner story if you haven't read it in
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: the show notes.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: A North Sacramento industrial site near D.W.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Babcock Elementary School is at the center of a neighborhood dispute after St.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sagar Funeral Home attempted to install two retorts and a crematory less than
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: a thousand feet from the school.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Saint Segar is a Sikh religious funeral home.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they serve everyone,
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: but the Saint Segar is a Sikh,
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: is for Sikhs who prefer cremation,
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: which is something that we forget,
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: that there are some religions that require cremation.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just ringing that bell again, I'll ring it as long as it needs to be rung.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: But residents and the school district are up in arms because it is so close to the students.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, the children.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, the children.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: You exhaust me.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is the thing.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think anyone listening to this will dispute
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: that California has probably some of the strictest air quality regulations
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: for opening a crematory.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I would just leave it in their hands.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're still doing the air quality report.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're still looking at the equipment.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is brand new equipment with extra afterburners that really minimize anything
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: that gets through, that even gets to the filter.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's new equipment and it scared people.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's an old, boring story, I guess, is the best way to put it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Air District ordered a construction halt and locked out the utility lines
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: because there was a permit violation there.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: During the environmental review,
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: but the permit violation had to do with running equipment,
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: not cremation equipment,
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: had to do with like literal construction had started in California.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: While they were waiting for the permits.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess all construction has to wait while they wait for the permits.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is the second or third story I think I've reported on.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's like, yeah, well, we're getting the permits and we're starting the construction.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that is, I guess, in some jurisdictions not acceptable.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would expect that as long as you had the permits before you turned the first thing
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: on, you'd be in good shape.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: But apparently that's not the case here.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: But again, there are screaming, terrified parents who would rather be angry than informed.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the school district is the school district.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing can ever be done to help those people.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, there's a link to the story in the show notes.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's rare that I get to clip a story from Plastics News to share with you,
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: and it's a speculative story at that,
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: so I'm going to warn you that I'm going to read something that I've already written,
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: and it is based on a speculative Plastics News article.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Wyoming-based Polygard and Company,
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: a major manufacturer of polymer materials,
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Burial vaults and liners appears to be expanding into Ohio through
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: a 19 million investment in Putnam County.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: According to state economic development announcements,
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: a company named Luxuron Plastics LLC will build a 45,000 square foot facility
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: that will generate 60 advanced manufacturing jobs by the end
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Local officials withheld corporate ownership details at the company's request
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: because there are still contracts pending,
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: but Luxuron is linked directly to Polygard,
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: and so this writer suspects that they will be making...
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Liners in Ohio in late 2027, early 2028.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're in the lining business,
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: or I guess everyone who buys polymer burial vaults and liners is kind of in
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: the polymer business.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, there's a link to this story in the show notes.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: I guess you can follow it for yourselves.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I'll keep a tab on it and I will update as is reasonable.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: After nearly a century in operation,
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maurer Funeral Home closed its locations in Liverpool and Baldwinsville,
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: New York recently.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: According to the story that I read,
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: business manager Deborah Clam confirmed that the closures were permanent and that
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: the pre-need Contracts would be transferred to other nearby funeral homes.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: No family members are willing to take over as current owner Dan Maurer,
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: whose family founded the business in 1927, prepares to retire.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I commented on this a little bit in my Sunday column, which I sent to our paid subscribers.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I do want to say that I reached out to see if I could get a comment.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is really interesting,
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: this notion of just shutting things down without making an attempt at a sale
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: or making an attempt at a merger or anything like that.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not as if he didn't have,
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine that his sale prices weren't what they could be.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: I spoke with someone this week,
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: the new,
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: not the new,
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: but the CEO of Landmark,
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: a new consolidation company,
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: and he was talking about A lot of times these rural-ish places,
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: they get down below 60
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: calls a year and it just becomes unsustainable.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that rather than sell,
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: he probably just decided to close it out and he'll sell the properties on their own.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: I guess they're these big, old, beautiful funeral homes.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they'll And I wonder how much more we'll see of that in the coming three
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: or four years.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: So link to this story in the show notes.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that will do it for this time.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: The Rest has been an On Deathcare production.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was written, edited, recorded, videoed, all the things by me, Tony Russo.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Still having a blast doing it.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's really so gratifying to see that you guys are taking the time to be with me,
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: as I say every week.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I know that your time is valuable.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know that your attention, I mean,
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: American attention is literally one of the rarest of commodities,
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: one of the hardest to get.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that you guys stay with me week after week is just really, really satisfying.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: It makes me feel like I'm doing a good job, and I hope I am.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm not, you have to tell me because I will start.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that I do want to point out before I close everything down is
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: if you see anything in your local newspaper,
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: if you have anything that's going on at your funeral home
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: that you just think is cool and you want people to know about it, shoot me an email.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to prepare a press release or anything.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: I can give you a call.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: We can chat about it really quick.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to share more local funeral home stories.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And for that, I need more local funeral homes to reach out to me.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: This show was sponsored as always by my paid subscribers and I thank them every time
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: and this is a time so I'll thank them.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys so much for your material support.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: It means the world to me.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you would like to support the show,
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: please go to ondeathcare.com and hit the subscribe button where you'll have
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: the opportunity to support this show with a subscription that costs
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: between $0 per month and more than $0 per month.
• 17:51
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• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: $0 per month is an excellent choice.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if you find that it's worth it week after week,
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: that if I'm doing the kind of work that you think you would like to pay for it and
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: that you have the means to pay for it, I would really like your support.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: But reading and sharing stories,
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: letting me know what I'm doing well,
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: letting me know what I'm doing poorly,
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: all those are huge helps and I think make this a better project altogether.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you guys as always.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And goodbye to summer, I guess.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is it.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is August 31st as I record this.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: The next time I record this would have been on Labor Day, but I'm not recording on Labor Day.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I will see you In the second week of September,
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: video-wise, I've got some podcasts and stuff coming up, though.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And enjoy yourselves.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: I intend to enjoy myself.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll catch you on, I guess, September 14th.