Casket markups of 300-500% are invisible to grieving buyers

A casket that costs a funeral home $600 at wholesale is routinely priced at $2,500–$3,000 retail — a 300–500% markup. Caskets are the single largest line item in a traditional funeral, and funeral homes depend on this margin because their 'basic services fee' rarely covers actual overhead. The FTC Funeral Rule technically allows consumers to purchase caskets from third parties (like Costco or online retailers) and bring them to the funeral home, and forbids the funeral home from charging a 'handling fee.' But in practice, almost no one does this. The reason: at the moment of selection, a grieving family is standing in a casket showroom inside the funeral home, emotionally overwhelmed, with a funeral director guiding them through options. The showroom is designed to anchor on the most expensive models. Third-party casket retailers exist online at 50-70% lower prices, but families would need to know this option exists, place an order, and arrange delivery within 24-48 hours — logistically and emotionally unrealistic. This persists because the information asymmetry is structural: by the time you need a casket, you are in the funeral home's physical space, under time pressure, and have never compared casket prices before in your life.