Caskets R US: Bay Area Store Breaks New Ground

OAKLAND, Calif. - For James Hopkins, the decision to open one of Oakland's most unusual stores began with the funeral for a friend.

After a 23-year-old friend from Fresno died in a car crash last year, Hopkins organized an effort to help the cash-strapped family cope with the high cost of a burial.

Hopkins saved the family $800 by finding a beneficent manufacturer willing to sell a casket at cost.

With thousands of Californians dying each day, and not all of them rich people, he figured there had to be a big market for caskets sold at a discount.

The result is the Casket Outlet, an Oakland store on the leading edge of an emerging trend in the nation's funeral industry.

"We are trying to improve the funeral process," says Hopkins, a former fashion designer who hopes to open three more Casket Outlets in the Bay Area in the next year. "For many funerals, the casket represents 40 percent of the cost. People need to know they have options that will save them money."

Sandwiched between a children's bookstore and a dry-cleaning shop, the Casket Outlet displays a wide range of choices. The store has 23 caskets available for viewing, from a basic cloth-covered wood box that sells for $399 to a bronze model costing $4,800, about half the price at a funeral home.

Hopkins says business is good even though he has to put up with a lot of funeral jokes. The store sold one casket before its official opening Nov. 9 and has sold four more since then, Hopkins says.

But whether low prices, a dignified atmosphere and strong novelty appeal will make the Casket Outlet a success is difficult to determine, industry experts say.

Retail casket stores opened in the past in various regions of the country and generally met with failure. But two years ago, the industry's dynamics changed when the Federal Trade Commission ruled funeral directors could no longer charge consumers a handling fee for caskets purchased outside the mortuary.

Supporters say the handling fee was common practice because funeral directors needed to defray the cost of liability insurance to protect themselves should the casket prove defective.

But the Federal Trade Commission ruled the policy restricted competition, increasing the cost of funerals. Now, the casket business is wide open.

"We are the wave of the future," Hopkins says. "We're not just selling caskets. We're providing a service. People need help planning a funeral. We know that from experience."