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Despite its low-cost rep, funeral directors unfazed by retailer selling coffins
WALMART PUT an entirely new spin on its "Save Money. Live Better" mantra by putting caskets and other funeral supplies for sale on Walmart.com last month and essentially allowing its customers to die better, or at least more affordably, too.
The effort, drawing upon models offered by Star Legacy Funeral Network, began quietly but got loud quickly as it was picked up heavily by blogs and news media.
Walmart executives have been discussing with ever greater frequency using Walmart.com to provide a long tail of products that don't quite fit even into a 200,000-squarefoot Supercenter. But even Walmart is downplaying its potential in the funeral business.
In an e-mail, a spokesman for Walmart.com described the funeralsupplies offering as a beta effort to test consumer response, though Star Legacy CEO Rick Obadiah said in published reports that it's not really a test and got better-than-expected results...