Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2011, when the funeral company it describes had “just started”.
It’s no secret that funeral homes are among the most profitable businesses there are, since people die in good times and in bad. Of course, like any profitable business, it tends to attract competition, and one way to stand out from the competition is to innovate in your business. For this case we head to the United States to pick up a rather peculiar business idea: “funeral tuning”.
There are thousands of funeral homes in the United States, but only one of them can brighten up the day you die. If in life you were passionate about football, you can have a coffin covered in turf or painted in your favourite team’s colours. If you were a Formula 1 fan, they’ll even shape your coffin like a racing car. When the day comes for the Spanish Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso (God willing, later rather than sooner), the least he deserves, instead of a grey and gloomy funeral, is the chance to be sent off in a coffin shaped like the car that won him his races.
Then there are the millionaires, of whom it’s said that no matter how much money they have, on the day they die they’ll leave this world just like anyone else. Now they have the chance to depart for the next one surrounded by riches, in a made-to-measure coffin plated in gold or silver, or simply lined with 100-dollar bills.
At this highly original funeral home, you tell them while you’re still alive how you want the day of your death to be, and they take care of granting your last wish.
See also: How to finance your business
Obviously, since there is such a variety of tastes and these products aren’t mass-produced, the cost is high: each one is made by hand.
And that’s not all. If you prefer cremation, your family can keep your ashes in the design of your choice, with whatever colours or patterns you like.
The company has only just started and already has plenty of orders. With prices for these novel coffins ranging from 1,000 to 15,000 dollars, this funeral home is turning death into a very profitable business.
Do you think we in Spain would face that day with so much humour?
Featured image: Danieljatuat, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
