D2C casket company Titan Casket could ship to my LA home as early as Thursday. I don’t really have the space, but maybe if I used it as a coffee table? A coffin table, if you will?

It’d be a great conversation starter, but also a money-saver.

Two casket companies…

… command 70%+ of the market share, per Retail Dive: Hillenbrand and Matthews. Both only sell caskets via funeral homes, where funeral directors can guide families through the entire planning process.

• Caskets can range from $300 to $9.3k, but the median price of a metal casket is $2.5k, and ~$3k for wood.
• Titan’s range from ~$500 to $4k and are available via Costco, Walmart, Amazon, and its website — with customization options.

Cool. So why aren’t we all preordering cheaper caskets?

Death is uncomfortable

D2C makeup, home decor, and fashion are fun. Thinking about one’s mortality — or that of your loved ones — is not. Many avoid thinking about death, leaving their grieving relatives to choose their casket at the funeral home.

To bump its business top of mind, Titan is using star power.

• It recently hired actor David Dastmalchian (Oppenheimer, The Suicide Squad) as its brand ambassador, and producer Elan Gale (“FBoy Island,” “Midnight Mass”) as creative director.
• It’s placed its caskets in media, including AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire” and Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” music video.

The FTC may also help, proposing an update to its 1984 Funeral Rule — which in part requires funeral homes to accept deliveries of caskets they did not sell — to provide prices upfront online, potentially aiding customers who want to shop around in advance.

BTW: The death positive movement seeks to foster open conversations surrounding death and end-of-life planning. Read more about that here.