MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas — In March President Donald Trump introduced a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum. That affects things like appliances and vehicles, but it’s also going to impact families during one of their most difficult times.
- The average funeral costs between $5,000 to $8,000, and casket prices range from $995 to $40,000, indicating that tariffs will add to the overall expense for families.
- While most funeral homes primarily use American-made caskets, Central Texas Casket faces a 20% price increase as they source from Mexico and plans to absorb the costs without passing them on to families.
- Both Serenity Life Celebrations and Central Texas Casket emphasize their commitment to keeping costs as low as possible for families during difficult times, with minimal adjustments only if absolutely necessary.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
On March 12th the United States started applying a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum. 25News Reporter Dominique Leh met with Serenity Life Celebrations and asked them how they would be affected.
“We actually have been talking about this, you know, we’ve been through this with thee COVID pandemic, so we’ve seen the price increases in different products,” said owner of Serenity Life Celebrations, Renae Green.
Serenity Life gets majority of her caskets from America based companies, but she tells me some families request specialty caskets, and those come from China.
“And so we are expecting an increase on those caskets,” Green said.
Green said the average funeral can cost between 5 to 8 thousand dollars with caskets ranging in price from $995 going all the way up to 40 grand. So, a tariff on imported material will only add to those costs.
“Unfortunately, as a buyer when we incur an increase in costs, the consumer will incur that increase as well,” she said.
25News Reporter Dominique Leh called several other funeral homes to find out how they would be affected, most tell me they buy American made caskets. But for Central Texas Casket, it’s a different story.
For 25 years Central Texas Casket offered caskets at a discount price starting at $650. The store owner tells me most American companies don’t provide services to discount stores, so they buy from Mexico. She tells me the cost for her is going to increase 20%. But she doesn’t plan to increase her prices for families are already going through a tough time.
Serenity Life Celebrations feels the same way, she plans to keep her costs as low as possible for families experiencing the loss of a loved one.
“If we don’t have to do those increases, obviously we won’t. But if it comes down to it, hopefully, just maybe a 5% increase might be suffice…As long as we can keep the costs affordable for our families. If the increase is not substantial. We won’t make the families pay that increase,”
Central Texas Casket also tells me they hope theses tariffs are temporary which is why they don’t plan to increase saying they’re just going to wait it out.
