The miscellaneous items provided or used to complement the services of a funeral director.
Sundry Items
Canopic jars and tomb furnishings.
Ancient Egyptian Sundries
Candles, palls, and black drapes provided by “undertakers” of the day.
Middle Age Sundry Items
The undertaker of this era provided (or procured) funeral broadsides and black-edged funeral notices, customary for the era.
Colonial America Sundry Items
With all of the changes in funeralization that have occurred, the vast majority of services handled by the _____ funeral home require some sort of sundry funeral merchandise.
Modern
- Burial garments
- Acknowledgement cards
- Memorial folders
- Laminated obituaries
- Prayer cards
- Crucifixes
- Religious icons
- Shivah candles
- Flowers
- Cemetery memorials (temporary and permanent)
- Flay cases
- Video tributes
- DNA sampling
Sundry Merchandise
Provided or sold in direct connection with the personal or religious requirements of the family being served.
Most of the Sundry Merchandise Offered by the Typical Funeral Establishment
Being offered in order to provide further opportunities for personalization (and/or enhance the funeral home’s bottom line).
- As diverse and far-ranging as teh demands of the market itself.
Newer Goods and Services
- Bare-minimum selection
- Great number of creatively displayed and marketed sundry choices
Two Basic Approaches to the Sale of Sundry Merchandise (can use one or both)
- One type of register book
- One kind of acknowledgement cards
- One style of memorial folder
- “One-size-fits-all” approach
- Will not directly charge families for basic sundries
- Fear that charging for a family’s selection will be “nickel and dime-ing” the family.
- Family may not particularly care for the selections, but will accept them as part of “what the funeral home does.”
Bare-Minimum Selection of Sundries
- Charges appropriately for the selected items
- Sundry merchandise might be grouped, organized, or sold in “packages.”
- Usually price/quality categories of good (entry level), better (standard), and best (premium).
Great Number of Creatively Displayed and Marketed Sundry Choices
- In this age where families are demanding an end to “cookie-cutter” funerals and insisting on personalization and individualization, a wide offering of sundries allows a family to choose what items best fit their needs. This leads to greater client satisfaction and an increased percieved value of the funeral home’s services.
- The sale of properly merchandised sundries can represent a significant source of revenue (an important consideration in times of increasing fiscal challenges!).
The Firm that Offers the Family Choices- 2 Important Opportunities for the Funeral Home
