The price of being dead just dropped. It is a good thing, given the troubles in the economy.

Wal-Mart is beginning to sell caskets and urns at walmart.com. Some of the caskets are prices as low as $999 and ship within 48-hours. It is a shame when a family won’t pay the full $1,00o when a loved one dies.

Wal-Mart, of course, sells everything on line and has the second most visited e-commerce site in the country, so caskets and urns are just an extension of making walmart.com the internet destination for all shopping. And some of the products are pretty attractive. Who could pass up the “Pieta and Last Supper Steel Casket” for only $1,599 or the “Dad Remembered Steel Casket” for $995? Does that come with free shipping?

It won’t be long until Wal-Mart is in the business of selling burial plots.

The Wal-Mart casket business may simply be an example of what happens in a recession. People will shop for almost anything based on price. Most families do not want to go all the way down-scale and buy or build a pine box. A bad economy probably makes cremation more attractive.

Wal-Mart’s slogan is “Save Money. Live Better.” The world’s largest retailer is going to have to add “Die Better” to the slogan, too.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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