Coffins On Sale At Wal-Mart

nightcats writes "Describing it as a 'limited beta test,' Wal-Mart announced its plans to offer coffins to its shoppers. In the Wal-Mart world, of course, beta comes with a price: $900 for a Mom or Dad coffin, all the way up to $2900 for a bronze sarcophagus. "

Comments

What about their latest slogan?

[oldspewey]

Doesn't this kind of fuck up their whole Save Money, Live Better campaign?

Re:What about their latest slogan?

[Yvan256]

Still sounds better than "Fuck Money, You're Dead Anyway".

Re:What about their latest slogan?

[oldspewey]

I would actually consider buying a Wal Mart coffin if they rolled out this campaign.

Supply and Demand

[CannonballHead]

... there's a lot of demand for burials. People still die. People still bury people. Usually with respect and in something nice. I don't see why it's so weird that Wal-Mart would want to provide a supply of caskets to people that would buy them. Aside from the fact that humanity likes to pretend death doesn't exist, it seems.

Re:Supply and Demand

[querist]

I have never quite understood why a coffin costs nearly one thousand dollars.

Can anyone explain why, other than greed and taking advantage of people who are mourning, that a coffin should cost so much?

Re:Supply and Demand

[CannonballHead]

Because people are willing to pay for a fancy coffin to bury someone in.

Spending lots of money on burials is nothing new. Pretty ancient tradition.

However, as far as coffins costing a lot - people are willing to pay that much, so why not? You can get cheap coffins somewhere, I'm sure. Or just use a wooden box. Or cremate. Why do people spend $100k on a car when they probably never drive it over 110mph anyway? People have money and like spending it for expensive things... that way people know they have the money that they can spend on expensive things...

"Greed" usually gets tossed around as though wanting to "make money" is "greed." I'm not sure that is always the case, though. Who decides how much a coffin should cost and how much over that cost is can be attributed to greed? Isn't it greedy for anyone to work and expect more money than he needs to simply live in an apartment with food and clothing? Anything extra is greedy! ...

Re:Supply and Demand

[oldspewey]

The funeral industry preys on the same human fears and insecurities as the wedding industry. People worry that if they don't get the very best of everything they can afford (or not afford in some cases) they are somehow not treating the event with the respect and gravity it so obviously deserves. People are afraid that if they don't get the event "right" it will somehow ruin the memory of their loved one - or in the case of a wedding it will ruin any chance at a happy life together.

I've basically told my loved ones that I want a simple cremation, a simple service, and if they go out and splurge on ridiculous frills I am going to come back and haunt the fuck out of them.

Re:Supply and Demand

[CannonballHead]

People are afraid that if they don't get the event "right" it will somehow ruin the memory of their loved one

Or other people will think that they don't care. It seems that we have created a fake obligation... we all think that everyone else is thinking something when they probably actually aren't or simply don't care... but we are so fearful of our "reputation" that we think people are thinking about us all the time. World revolves around us, better not disapoint it!

Another option needed

[Dachannien]

How much for a really big styrofoam cooler?

I love that they used IE6.

[NervousNerd]

I loved that they used IE6 in the screenshot.

Costco Already Did It

[bobobobo]

Not sure why this is big news. Costco has been doing this for some time already. Guess it's funny now that WalMart is doing it?