Wis. may ban funeral parlors from malls

BY JOHN HARTZELL

MILWAUKEE -- The home to many of the nation's bars, restaurants and hair salons is no place for the dearly departed, says a state lawmaker who wants to ban funeral parlors from the ubiquitous strip mall.

''To put it in a strip mall next to a Hooters or an auto parts store doesn't serve the industry or consumers well,'' said state Rep. Phil Montgomery (R-Ashwaubenon). ''Consumers have a certain expectation for a funeral home. Most people would be taken aback.''

Montgomery's measure would protect people -- especially those who arrange their funerals in advance -- from fly-by-night funeral parlors that he says could come and go from the malls as quickly as pizza parlors.

''A funeral service is not like selling T-shirts,'' Mark Paget, executive director of the Wisconsin Funeral Directors Association, said in support of the bill, which would require funeral homes to be in buildings that do not contain more than one other unrelated business.

'All about greed'
But opponents such as Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance in South Burlington, Vt., say the bill would restrict competition in the industry, which he said has seen a declining demand for full funeral services, particularly with cremations being done in about 30 percent of deaths nationally. ''Where are these fly-by-night funeral homes? I don't see any,'' he said.

He did not see anything inherently different between a free-standing funeral home and one in a strip mall.

John Bucci, who recently opened Wisconsin Chapels and Cremation Society in a strip mall in Verona near Madison, said funeral homes such as his can offer services at lower cost than larger free-standing operations with three or four parlors.

He said they can do that by holding services at churches, cemeteries, nursing homes and in families' homes.

''This is all about greed,'' said Bucci, whose business is in a strip mall along with a bar-restaurant, cake shop and auto parts store.

Montgomery said the trend toward making funeral arrangements before a person died made it even more important to make sure the business was still open when the service was needed. Besides strip malls, Paget said, the bill also would ban funeral homes in industrial parks.

Industrial parks
Slocum said the only measure similar to Montgomery's he was aware of was one in the Tennessee Senate this year that would have required funeral homes to be located in stand-alone buildings. He said it was referred back to committee this spring.

Fay Spano, a spokeswoman for the National Funeral Directors Association based in Brookfield, Wis., said regulation of the business varied greatly from state to state and the organization was not aware of any similar efforts to ban funeral establishments from strip malls.