And there is nothing inherently wrong with corporate ownership, nor anything especially noble about independent ownership. In every field, there are sloppy independent operators and exemplary corporate ones. In practice, however, they are organized around essentially different principles. The publicly traded, corporate enterprise is accountable to the international headquarters, the sales quota and the stockholder, while the independent is accountable to the local consumer, including very often the local loan officer. The privately owned firm must make up in local public trust what it lacks in multinational corporate cover.
Independents count on the name on the sign.
Corporates count on the money in the bank. As more package deals are proffered and pre-sold, the public is quite clearly buying less. Still, it has seemed to many funeral directors that the only choices were to sell hard or to sell out. We are not. The name on my sign, like the names on most, is not Funerals 'R' Us or Best Buy Burials or Mortuary Express.