FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — A good month for business at the Gary Rollins Funeral Home used to be eight or nine funerals. Over the last decade, that average has dropped to three or four at the South Street funeral home that mainly serves Frederick’s black community, he said.
“We are way, way down,” Gary Rollins said.
Shrinking household budgets and a decline in the U.S. death rate are affecting the bottom line of some local businesses that serve the funeral industry, reflecting a national trend.
Local florists, funeral homes and cemetery operators say they have noticed the decline as families opt for lower-cost alternatives to traditional funerals, such as cremations.
In 2010, 68 percent of deaths were casketed, according to the Casket & Funeral Supply Association of America, a 4-percent decrease since 2005 (72 percent). In 2000, 79 percent of deaths were casketed.
Overall funeral-industry revenue has declined at an annual average rate of 0.4 percent between 2007 and 2012, according to a report from ibisworld.com. Revenue for funeral homes, including those with crematories, was $11.95 billion in 2007, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.
Additionally, the ibisworld.com report states that consumers are turning to discount retailers and manufacturers to buy caskets.
Meanwhile, the U.S. death rate — the statistic that measures the number of deaths per 1,000 population — has fallen sharply over the last 75 years.
According to a government analysis of mortality rates, the death rate per 100,000 Americans fell from 1,860 to 746 between 1935 and 2010, a 60 percent change.
The largest decline — 41 percent between 1969 and 2010 — is likely due to progress in preventing, diagnosing and treating cardiovascular diseases, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, authors of the report.
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Local reaction
“I’m a small business that mainly serves the black community, so that’s a big hit, and I have to really watch what I do,” Rollins said.
“Even when I talk to casket representatives, they’re telling me everyone is affected, especially smaller funeral homes.”
Business is down at Frederick’s Mt. Olivet Cemetery as well, sales representative Scott Baker said.
The cemetery used to average more than 300 burials a year, but that number is down to about 260, Baker said. Families tight on money opt for cremation over the more expensive regular burial, he said.
Funerals are advertised at $10,000, but they don’t tell you it costs another $10,000 at the cemetery, Baker said. Cremation costs about $5,000 or less, he said.
The decline in deaths that Stauffer Funeral Home is seeing is not significant, owner Doug Stauffer said. “The question is: Is it going to level off?”
The death rate is going down but it’s projected to increase as baby boomers age, Stauffer said. “The question is:–When is it going to happen?”
Stauffer attributed the decline to advances in medical technology, people taking better care of themselves by watching what they eat, exercising and wearing seat belts and helmets.
Other companies are experiencing a decline in business for reasons other than a drop in the death rate.
More people are opting for memorials in lieu of flowers, which explains the dip in sympathy work at Flower Fashions Inc. in Frederick, business owner Wanda Stone said.
The decline has evolved over the years but became stronger over the last five to seven years, Stone said. “It just went downhill,” she said.
Michelle Blank, owner of Flowers by Jim, said funeral work “has absolutely declined” over the years, but her business would be a poor measure because many people thought she had closed shop when the business relocated to an alley.
Business is down considerably at R.S. Kinnaird Memorials in Thurmont, but business owner John Kinnaird attributes the decline to the economy rather death rates.
Most of Kinnaird’s memorials are bought with insurance or inheritance money, and with the economy the way it is, people are not spending unless they have to, the businessman said.
“Once they get done paying that outrageous funeral bill — once they put that chunk of change down, people are leery about spending on anything else,” Kinnaird said.
But the decline in death rate can only be temporary, Kinnaird said. People will die eventually and that number will jump back to where it used to be.
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Not everyone affected
Death rates are down for the East Coast as far as national statistics, said Rick Graf, co-owner and mortician at Keeney & Basford Funeral Home in Frederick, “but as for us, we’re probably right in line with past years.”
Hartzler Funeral Home in Frederick also has not seen a decline in business.
In fact, the small funeral home has experienced an increase — from approximately 130 funerals in 2010 to approximately 160 in 2011, funeral director Kit Hartzler said.
“We’re small volume compared to some of the larger homes but just looking at the numbers, we have not seen evidence of a decline,” Hartzler said.
The story is the same at Resthaven Funeral Services in Frederick, where owner Skkot Cody said he has had an increase “year after year.”
“We seem to be increasing close to 10 percent a year, and with the baby boomers getting older, I would speculate there will be a spike, rather than a decline” in deaths, Cody said.
