By nature, the funeral industry enjoys a guaranteed demand for its goods and services, and through tradition and industry practice, it enjoys limited competition. Making the situation worse is the fact that consumers often select and purchase their goods and services at a very emotional time.
People making funeral arrangements are usually upset and vulnerable.
They are unfamiliar with the services being offered and often have only a few days in which to make decisions. These characteristics grant the industry a unique advantage over consumers, that no other industry enjoys. Making the situation worse is the unfortunate trend of large corporations taking over individually-owned funeral homes. A growing number of funeral homes in California are becoming corporatized, and tend to be more expensive than individually-owned funeral homes. This trend, although alarming, is not a recent phenomenon.