High Urning Potential Firm Is First In Spokane To Focus Almost Exclusively On Cremation Services
Chuck Wetmore would love to show people around his new business sometime.
He’ll walk from room to room, point out his designer urns, his state-of-the-art crematory, the refrigerator built for three.
Wetmore runs the Cremation Society of Washington, Spokane’s first company to focus almost exclusively on cremations.
Just don’t bang on the door too early in the morning. Wetmore has made the East Sprague business his home since moving from New Hampshire in December.
Despite the grim nature of a business that offends the sensibilities of some and is avoided by others, Wetmore, 44, is enthusiastic.
“This is really not work for me, except for the long hours,” says Wetmore.
His bed, cereal and microwave occupy the space where he envisions a future display of body-sized cremation boxes. A step out of his bedroom is a journey into the blue and mauve “memorial room.”
Wetmore is willing to tough it out until his wife and two teenagers can join him later this year, because he is convinced he’s on to something big here.
Wetmore is betting it’s profitable, too. Cremation is chosen in about 44 percent of Washington state deaths - the third highest in the United States, behind Nevada and Hawaii.
While several Spokane funeral homes offer cremations, they also focus on services and burials. Wetmore plans to siphon business by keeping overhead and prices at his 1,800-square-foot facility low.
His E1821 Sprague quarters, across from a tavern and clothing store, bear no resemblance to a traditional funeral home. Families who want small memorial services have access to only a carpeted, 25-chair room - no music, no frills.
Wetmore offers simple burials, but doesn’t promote them. Many people, he says, no longer want to spend thousands of dollars on traditional services and burials.
Wetmore’s services include picking up bodies, helping select urns and cremation boxes, performing cremations and scattering ashes if requested.
“The funeral home today is becoming a thing of the past,” says Wetmore, who left one to move here. “We’re a challenge to them. We’re a threat.”
Spokane funeral homes have been keeping an eye on Wetmore since the business opened three weeks ago. They’re planning a response, including more advertising.
“All of the major cities have a firm like that. There is a legitimate niche for him to fill,” says Kim Mangis, a funeral director at Ball & Dodd Funeral Homes. “It’s a fairly new phenomenon in funeral service.” Cremations at Ball & Dodd start at about $1,145, he says.
Wetmore’s least expensive cremations cost $895 - or $770 for those who pre-enroll as society members before death for a $25 fee.
Public image is critical to Wetmore, who’s heard his share of “Now that’s a hot business!” jokes.
He hopes to enhance cremation’s image by highlighting such aspects as his $50,000 furnace, equipped with pollution-control gadgets he loves to show off.
“That beam of light is shot through the smokestack.” He grimaces. “I don’t want to call it a smokestack.”
He struggles for a more palatable word, then shrugs. “That’s what it is.”
His point: If thick smoke blocks the light, an alarm goes off.
Wetmore, in the funeral home business for 25 years, was convinced to open the cremation society by a buddy he attended embalming classes with years ago.
John Ayres, co-owner of the Spokane business, plans to continue working at a California funeral home until the company is big enough to support two.
So far, Wetmore has done five cremations and has one person signed on as a member. Someday the partners hope to open businesses throughout the Northwest.
Until then, Wetmore expects to step up his membership drive and finish a few projects at the business (starting in the memorial service room, where the glued-on baseboard fell off).
He’ll stock up on supplies, repeat his sales pitch to the dozens of people calling for information and get to know other business people.
“You never lack conversation,” Wetmore says, “as soon as you tell them what you do.”