The family-owned funeral home is a dying industry

[samhexum]

Family-owned funeral homes in Queens are in decline, according to numerous local funeral directors across the “World’s Borough.”

 

This year alone, several family-owned and -operated funeral homes in the borough have been acquired by bigger companies or sold for real estate.

 

But John Golden, owner and operator of Martin A. Gleason Funeral Homes, says that the changing industry is not beneficial to the communities they serve. Golden has worked at Gleason since 1981 and bought the business from original owners John and Marty Gleason in 2000.

 

“The phrase ‘family-owned and -operated’ evokes a warmth,” Golden said. “Typically, family-owned and -operated businesses had proprietors and employees who lived in the communities they served. They were accountable to the community and were integral to the fabric of what made a community function as such.”

 

He said that the Gleasons had the opportunity to sell the funeral home to a big corporation, but declined due to their feelings that their business “is akin to a vocation” and should serve the community.

 

Recently, Golden confirmed that he acquired Lloyd’s Funeral Home in Bayside, another family-owned business. He operates the funeral home under the same name and number from Gleason’s Bayside facility, which he said customers have appreciated.

 

Golden shared that bigger companies may not provide the same personalized service as family-run operations.

 

“Management is often removed from day-to-day operations,” said Golden, who added that corporate chains in Queens often outsource the work they do to companies out of state as opposed to offering in-house services like at Gleason.

 

John Hoey, the owner of O’Shea-Hoey Funeral Home in Astoria echoes Golden’s sentiments. Hoey’s family has owned the funeral home, at 29-13 Ditmars Blvd., since 1967, when they purchased it from the O’Shea family. The owner said that the services they are able to provide to customers are more “personable” than services offered by bigger corporations.

 

“We provide the same service and the same funeral for a fraction of the cost, with a personal touch that you, your family and loved ones deserve. We provide all services at our funeral home. We are not just a cremation service or some new internet website business. We are experienced funeral directors, who are here to help you plan a dignified funeral,” as noted on the O’Shea-Hoey Funeral Home website.

 

Both Golden and Hoey attribute the decline in family-owned businesses to the rising property values in the area, making it more difficult to stay open. Hoey said that the smaller funeral homes have been closing down over the last four or five years. According to Golden, funeral homes all over the New York City and in Nassau County in Long Island have fallen prey to rising property values.

 

“The costs make it more expensive to run. Real estate is a lot more money [now],” said Hoey.

 

But Hoey said that the rise of corporation-owned funeral homes has also been pushing customers to patronize O’Shea-Hoey. “The advantage is that the prices for the bigger guys is higher, which is helping me,” he said.

 

Despite the staying power of these two family-run businesses rising costs in the area make the future uncertain.

 

“I think it’ll keep being a trend,” said Hoey. “I think a lot of people are gonna close down even more.”

 

Golden said that the solution is to make people aware about which business are family-run and which are not in order for them to stay afloat in the upcoming years.

 

“It is imperative that customers know what kind of business they are dealing with: a family-owned and -operated one or a corporation. They may make all the difference in their experience,” said Golden.

 

[+ Avalon]

I once worked at a mortuary for several years. It was not a family one. Just before I left it was sold to the local cemetery and that was a family business.

[samhexum]

I once worked at a mortuary

 

So you and Caryn Johnson have something in common.

 

A “good pun” is an oxymoron.

The family-owned funeral home is a dying industry

 

What a great pun!

 

The funeral home industry is being dragged kicking and screaming into the latest century — by a pair of Web sites that have begun to shed light on their prices.

 

Funeralocity.com and Parting.com are two startups that enable the bereaved to shop for caskets, embalming and cremation services — and search for the cheapest option as they can when booking an airplane flight, a car or a hotel.

 

Funeralocity, which has no business relationship with Travelocity, chose its name to “make people laugh,” founder Ed Michael Reggie said. He quickly confirmed, however, that undertakers aren’t laughing.

 

“We have some homes that are not happy about being listed,” said Reggie, a former professor of entrepreneurship at Tulane University. “But the fact is every consumer wants the ability to compare prices online.”

 

The funeral home business is notoriously murky when it comes to pricing. Some critics claim undertakers can take advantage of clients who are of no mind to bargain when grieving their loved ones, sources said.

 

“Prices tend to stay higher when there is no transparency, and that describes the funeral industry,” said Josh Slocum of the Funeral Consumers Alliance told The Post. “There is no other retail sector that routinely hides its prices to get people to come into the sales office” so it can sell them a pricey package, Slocum said.

 

Currently, just 25 percent of the 20,000 funeral homes in the US provide pricing information on their sites, according to FCA, a nonprofit, consumer watchdog group.

 

“This is an industry that is 40 to 50 years out of date technologically and culturally,” Slocum added.

 

When reached by The Post, undertakers said they didn’t want their prices online for a whole host of reasons, ranging from fears of being undercut by the competition to causing customer confusion.

 

“If I put my prices online, the next guy can offer his services for less,” said Anthony Cassieri, who owns Brooklyn Funeral Home & Cremation Service in Brownsville and claims to the cheapest around.

 

“I don’t think money should be at the forefront of a funeral,” Joseph Giordano Jr. of Curry & Giordano Funeral Home in Peekskill, NY told The Post before adding: “I don’t include my prices on my Web site because I want people to come in and see my facility.”

 

Giordano and other funeral directors also said their price lists should not be shared online because they are too confusing for the average consumer to understand.

 

“It’s an incredibly complicated price list,” insisted Nicholas Grillo of Levandoski & Grillo in Bloomfield, NJ. “There are third-party charges, including newspaper, organists and such that can add $4,000 to $5,000 to a tab.”

 

By law, funeral homes have no choice but to share their prices when asked, which is how Funeralocity and Parting.com are able to exist.

 

Funeralocity launched in April after testing its technology in Atlanta for two years and setting up call centers to collect its information on funeral homes. It allows grieving consumers to look at a detailed menu of prices along with photos of funeral homes and customer reviews.

 

Both Web sites offer their listings for free to consumers and don’t charge funeral homes. They make money by promoting businesses that agree to pay a fee and meet certain qualifications to be listed as a top provider.

 

Despite the benefit of the service for consumers, it’s not a surefire business model, according to Tyler Yamasaki, chief executive of Parting.com.

 

The company has recently shifted its focus to selling funeral homes software “to help them digitize their business“ because the profits in the pricing aggregation business was shaky, Yamasaki said.

 

While it still offers pricing information on some 15,000 funeral homes, Parting has stopped updating the pricing.

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by samhexum

[+ Avalon]

So you and Caryn Johnson have something in common.

Whoopi Goldberg.

 

I worked there 2.5 years. For 5 months I was an apprentice embalmer. The rest of time I was a nightman. Back then there were only two mortuaries in the county. Each got to handle the autopsies. That was important because the family usually will choose the mortuary that has done the autopsy to do the funeral. Sometimes I got to help the doctor with the autopsies. One time I got to slice a brain.

 

After seeing what went on at the mortuary my family decided on cremation.

[+ bashful]

I remember an episode of Six Feet Under dealt with a big corpororation that owned funeral homes wanting to purchase their family owned funeral home. The big corporation did not come off as benevolent.

[+ Travis69]

Whoopi Goldberg.

 

I worked there 2.5 years. For 5 months I was an apprentice embalmer. The rest of time I was a nightman. Back then there were only two mortuaries in the county. Each got to handle the autopsies. That was important because the family usually will choose the mortuary that has done the autopsy to do the funeral. Sometimes I got to help the doctor with the autopsies. One time I got to slice a brain.

 

After seeing what went on at the mortuary my family decided on cremation.

You and your life becomes more interesting with every post.

[Chuckball]

I recently chatted with the superintendent of a local cemetery. He said sales of plots are way down. Younger people are opting for cremation and spreading ashes on lakes, rivers or special green spaces. Local funeral home business is also in decline because fewer people are opting for casket and visitation. Increasing in popularity is green burial where there is no embalming and burial is in a body wrapped in a shroud.

[+ g56whiz]

The family-owned funeral home is a dying industry

 

What a great pun!

[510guy]

I once worked at a mortuary for several years. It was not a family one. Just before I left it was sold to the local cemetery and that was a family business.

You should have a post dedicated to your life.

[+ MasssageGuy]

The biodegradable burial pod that turns your body into a tree.

 

I plan on doing this when my time comes.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/03/world/eco-solutions-capsula-mundi/index.html

[Beancounter]

The biodegradable burial pod that turns your body into a tree.

 

I plan on doing this when my time comes.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/03/world/eco-solutions-capsula-mundi/index.html

 

Interesting concept. Hope your state allows it.

 

http://coeio.com/burial-laws-state/

[+ Pensant]

When I first moved to California years ago, I was amused that they called funeral homes mortuaries.

[Rudynate]

When I first moved to California years ago, I was amused that they called funeral homes mortuaries.

 

 

I grew up in New York State. The terms were more or less interchangeable. The businesses usually identified themselves in their signage and advertising as mortuaries.

[spider]

I recently chatted with the superintendent of a local cemetery. He said sales of plots are way down. Younger people are opting for cremation and spreading ashes on lakes, rivers or special green spaces. Local funeral home business is also in decline because fewer people are opting for casket and visitation. Increasing in popularity is green burial where there is no embalming and burial is in a body wrapped in a shroud.

 

Almost all my friends are saying variations on the instructions I’ve left my family. Cremation as quickly and inexpensively as the law allows. Use the money to throw a huge party. Although a State Funeral does have certain attractions. LOL I also wouldn’t mind if I last long enough to make sending the Ashes into space an option.

[robberbaron4u]

I have a coffee can painted up by a semi-famous artist for my ashes.

[Jomo]

I buried my dad about two years ago. Very expensive process. Had the funeral in town where we lived most of my life, but burial in his hometown about 200 miles south of here. I used what used to be a local provider that had sold out to a large corporation. I, and my family, were extremely pleased with the services that were offered. The whole process of planning dads funeral took about 45 minutes, and a check for $14K.

[samhexum]

http://synd.imgsrv.uclick.com/comics/co/2019/co190601.gif

 

Younger people are opting for cremation and spreading ashes on lakes, rivers or special green spaces.

The biodegradable burial pod that turns your body into a tree. I plan on doing this when my time comes.

Cremation as quickly and inexpensively as the law allows. Use the money to throw a huge party... I also wouldn’t mind if I last long enough to make sending the Ashes into space an option.

I have a coffee can painted up by a semi-famous artist for my ashes.

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by samhexum

[sincitymix]

The biodegradable burial pod that turns your body into a tree.

 

I plan on doing this when my time comes.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/03/world/eco-solutions-capsula-mundi/index.html

this is how i want to be buried. my mother has expressed similar interest.

[samhexum]

this is how i want to be buried. my mother has expressed similar interest.

So you're saying your mother has expressed similar interest in seeing you buried that way?

 

Sorta macabre, but to each his own...

 

[sincitymix]

So you're saying your mother has expressed similar interest in seeing you buried that way?

 

Sorta macabre, but to each his own...

 

errr.. rather she wants a green burial too.. she likes the idea of a tree sprouting from her remains.

[+ tassojunior]

One of the weirdest experiences of my life was when my father died when I was 17 and within an hour my mother and I were driven to a funeral home to select the coffin and service etc. They showed us photos of how well preserved unearthed corpses were that had been in one of their better caskets and crypts, told us that especially close families often chose the mahogany coffin out of respect, etc etc, all while Mother and I were still sobbing uncontrollably. The contract my mother signed and paid was outrageous. Crazy business.

[samhexum]

A mosque buried its imam in the backyard — and a little Rockland County (NY) village almost died of shock.

 

Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti, who founded the Jerrahi Order of America mosque in Chestnut Ridge, died at the age of 92 in February 2018.

 

He was laid to rest behind the house of worship a few days later. And in May of this year, the faithful erected a grand monument made from imported Turkish marble. A bench was installed next to it.

 

Etched into the marble tomb is one of the sheikh’s favorite sayings: “The most beloved of Allah’s servants are those who engender Allah’s love in his servants and their love in Allah.”

 

The gravesite is the picture of tranquility. But it has not been a peaceful resting place.The issue of private burials has haunted the public discourse in this village of 8,000 souls ever since, with opponents — led by a retired FBI agent — saying backyard graves are public health risks and that village officials should never have OK’d one.

 

“I don’t think that an incorporated village where people live next door to one another on small or large parcels of land should allow the burial of human remains on properties,” said Hilda Kogut, the ex-Fed and chairwoman of Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhoods, who called the town policy a “shock to the system.”

 

Embarrassed village officials soon claimed they tried to stop the burial, but didn’t have the legal authority to block it. The mosque, providing correspondence as proof, said it asked for permission from the village to bury their beloved imam, and received it.

 

The mosque “did it against our respectful wishes,” Chestnut Ridge Mayor Rosario Presti insisted.

 

The mosque’s current sheikh, Yurdaer Doganata, noted that the congregation followed “local safety codes and health regulations and used a traditional casket. It was a green burial and there were no chemicals used. The grave site was approximately six feet deep. A member of our community who is a licensed contractor performed the ground preparations.” The coffin was made from wood with no nails, he said.

 

The state does not have a law against home burial and allows local governments to pass their own ordinances regarding the practice. Chestnut Ridge has no law on the issue.

 

Such interments are safe, and not uncommon in others parts of the country, according to the Funeral Consumers Alliance.

 

“The myth of contagion from dead bodies is one of the most persistent of the American funeral industry,” reads the alliance’s website. “There is no evidence, peer-reviewed or otherwise, to justify it.”

 

Still, New Yorkers creeped out by the prospect of living among the dead, need not be; NYC forbids private, at-home burials.

 

Mayor Presti said the village hopes to soon draft an ordinance that bans backyard burials. But the late shiekh’s followers will not have to worry about an exhumation.

 

“You can’t unring that bell,” the mayor said.

[samhexum]

Dozens of bodies found in U-Haul trucks outside NYC funeral home

 

Police found dozens of bodies being stored in unrefrigerated trucks outside a Brooklyn funeral home and lying on the facility’s floor Wednesday, law enforcement sources told The Post.

 

Between 40 to 60 bodies were discovered either stacked up in U-Haul box trucks outside Andrew Cleckley Funeral Services in Flatlands or on the building’s floor, after neighbors reported a foul odor around the property, sources said.

 

The corpses were stacked on top of each other in the trucks. Fluid leaking from inside created a terrible smell and caused neighboring store owners to call the police, according to sources.

 

NYPD detectives were joined by several other city agencies investigating the trucks at the Utica Avenue facility Wednesday evening, with the section of the street closed off to the public.

 

John DiPietro, who owns a neighboring property, said he had observed cadavers being stored in the trucks for at least several weeks during the coronavirus pandemic.

 

“You don’t respect the dead that way. That could have been my father, my brother,” he said. “You don’t do that to the dead.”

 

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was on the scene, but could not confirm any details of the storage. Adams said the city needed to ramp up staff for a “bereavement committee” to deal with the surging deaths due to the coronavirus.

 

“We need to bring in funeral directors, morgues, [medical examiners], clergies … when you find bodies in trucks like this throughout our city, treating them in an undignified manner, that’s unacceptable.”

 

Police called in the state Department of Health. A spokesman at the agency said the department is actively looking into the matter, but couldn’t comment further.

 

In addition to the two U-Hauls holding corpses, the facility had two more refrigerated trucks also storing bodies and a third box truck of empty caskets, police sources said.

 

The funeral home told officers that the bodies were supposed to be going to a crematorium but they didn’t come and pick them up, sources told the Post.

 

Corpses began being stored in the trucks after the company’s freezer stopped working correctly, an anonymous official told the New York Times.

 

The owner of Pemco supplies, a kitchen appliance parts supplier nearby the funeral home, called the situation a “disaster.”

 

“They were storing them in U-Haul trucks; we knew what was going on but not the extent,” the owner said.

 

“One thing to be [killed] by the coronavirus, another to be treated inhumanly.”

 

Calls to the funeral company, went unanswered Wednesday afternoon.

 

Workers, some not wearing protective equipment, could be seen taking bodies from the facility into the night.

 

A tarp was extended from the building to shield the process as Dodge Caravan minivans backed up onto the sidewalk to receive the corpses. A gentle wind occasionally blew the tarp back to reveal the body bags as they were wheeled into the minivans on gurneys.

 

“You don’t see this all over the city — especially in a residential neighborhood,” one shocked cop told The Post. “Never seen anything like this.”

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by samhexum

[+ g56whiz]

Dozens of bodies found in U-Haul trucks outside NYC funeral home

 

Police found dozens of bodies being stored in unrefrigerated trucks outside a Brooklyn funeral home and lying on the facility’s floor Wednesday, law enforcement sources told The Post.

 

Between 40 to 60 bodies were discovered either stacked up in U-Haul box trucks outside Andrew Cleckley Funeral Services in Flatlands or on the building’s floor, after neighbors reported a foul odor around the property, sources said.

 

The corpses were stacked on top of each other in the trucks. Fluid leaking from inside created a terrible smell and caused neighboring store owners to call the police, according to sources.

 

NYPD detectives were joined by several other city agencies investigating the trucks at the Utica Avenue facility Wednesday evening, with the section of the street closed off to the public.

 

John DiPietro, who owns a neighboring property, said he had observed cadavers being stored in the trucks for at least several weeks during the coronavirus pandemic.

 

“You don’t respect the dead that way. That could have been my father, my brother,” he said. “You don’t do that to the dead.”

 

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was on the scene, but could not confirm any details of the storage. Adams said the city needed to ramp up staff for a “bereavement committee” to deal with the surging deaths due to the coronavirus.

 

“We need to bring in funeral directors, morgues, [medical examiners], clergies … when you find bodies in trucks like this throughout our city, treating them in an undignified manner, that’s unacceptable.”

 

Police called in the state Department of Health. A spokesman at the agency said the department is actively looking into the matter, but couldn’t comment further.

 

In addition to the two U-Hauls holding corpses, the facility had two more refrigerated trucks also storing bodies and a third box truck of empty caskets, police sources said.

 

The funeral home told officers that the bodies were supposed to be going to a crematorium but they didn’t come and pick them up, sources told the Post.

 

Corpses began being stored in the trucks after the company’s freezer stopped working correctly, an anonymous official told the New York Times.

 

The owner of Pemco supplies, a kitchen appliance parts supplier nearby the funeral home, called the situation a “disaster.”

 

“They were storing them in U-Haul trucks; we knew what was going on but not the extent,” the owner said.

 

“One thing to be [killed] by the coronavirus, another to be treated inhumanly.”

 

Calls to the funeral company, went unanswered Wednesday afternoon.

 

Workers, some not wearing protective equipment, could be seen taking bodies from the facility into the night.

 

A tarp was extended from the building to shield the process as Dodge Caravan minivans backed up onto the sidewalk to receive the corpses. A gentle wind occasionally blew the tarp back to reveal the body bags as they were wheeled into the minivans on gurneys.

 

“You don’t see this all over the city — especially in a residential neighborhood,” one shocked cop told The Post. “Never seen anything like this.”

 

 

Horrific.

[+ Pensant]

Cremation is the only option. Our family owns a large plot in an historic churchyard in upper Bucks County, a church my ancestors helped found. My sister and I estimate there are 16 spots left. We may buy our stones this summer so when we die all our family needs to do is drop the ashes canister in the hole and engrave the date of death.