COSTCO TEST-MARKETING ULTIMATE 'LAYAWAY'.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

CHICAGO - Whether you're in the market for a good night's sleep or the eternal kind, one members-only, big-box retailer has you covered.

Costco Wholesale Corp., better known for bulk quantities of groceries and household supplies, is test-marketing caskets alongside mattresses at a several Chicago area outlets.

``This is certainly something that can be an easy value,'' said Gina Bianche, a buyer in Costco's corporate office in Issaquah, Wash. ``I don't want to say 'cheap' value, but it just needs to be done.''

Each of the six models from the Universal Casket Co., in colors including lilac and Neapolitan blue, is priced at $799.99. They're made of 18-gauge steel, considered medium weight for caskets, and can be delivered within 48 hours.

Caskets can already be purchased directly from manufacturers, in funeral supply stores and over the Internet, but big general merchandise stores had stayed away from them until now, said David Walkinshaw, a spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association.

At a Costco on Chicago's North Side, shoppers checking out the new casket kiosk Monday seemed to like the idea that the same store where they buy so many things for this life was branching into the afterlife.

``A casket at Costco, yeah, I think it's pretty bizarre,'' said Inga Barth, 53. She wondered about buying a casket with only a kiosk and small samples of the caskets' material to look over, though, saying, ``When you go casket shopping, you want to see the whole thing.''

That didn't trouble John Neuhaus.

``I want the adjustable bed and mattress for my neck,'' he joked, pointing to one of the features highlighted at the kiosk. After all, he said, ``It says eternal rest.''

Others liked the idea of being able to shop for the casket long before a loved one's death. Too often, that is a time when the survivors are distressed, under time constraints and might feel they are at the mercy of funeral homes.

``I remember my mom was supposed to get a plain pine box for my dad, and she walked out with mahogany,'' said Gretchen Henninger.

The Costco experiment got a skeptical greeting in the Los Angeles area.

Funeral homes run into high fixed costs for insurance and workers' compensation, noted Edward Murphy, vice president of the Glendale-based Transitions Funeral Services, leaving the casket as one of the few places they can recoup their money. With funeral costs rising, he said, consumers were beginning to seek out bargains.

``Costco has realized what's going on in the industry,'' Murphy said. ``As a retailer, they're just trying to meet demand because people are shopping online more and more for funeral merchandise. They're going to the funeral homes for service, but not for the caskets since they're marked up so much.''

Those involved in arranging funerals were split about discount retailers moving in on their business, especially one with 42 million Costco cardholders and 324 locations in 36 states.

Seeing caskets for sale outside the traditional setting raises awareness for other retailers, said Armando Tunnerman, manager of Direct Casket in Van Nuys.

While he thought that could be a boon for his industry, he had his doubts that a mass retailer could handle the sensitive questions posed by the recently bereaved.

``I don't feel that people are ready to see that in a grocery store,'' he said. ``I doubt Costco will have the training to deal with the questions that arise, because people have lots of questions beyond just the casket - what should they look out for, how can they save money (in other funeral costs).''

Costco's caskets are cheaper than those at Direct Casket, where prices start at $1,195, and at Transitions, which start at $1,295.

But funeral experts said mortuaries will likely raise prices in other ways.

``If you take the casket out of the equation and the casket is purchased in a retail environment, then that portion of the funeral director's profit center will disappear and the funeral director must respond to that,'' said George Lemke, executive director of the Casket and Funeral Supply Association.

Asked whether that meant raising prices, he replied: ``That's entirely possible.''

Costco is prepared for that, said Fred Elsner, general manager of the North Side store. When casket buyers dial the phone number on the brochure, ``We will put them in touch with funeral homes that are part of the program,'' he said.

The brochure says buyers can cut their overall funeral costs by more than 30 percent that way. But Lemke said the funeral home working with Costco might not be the one the family planned to deal with.

While caskets can cost several thousand dollars, some funeral homes do sell them for even less than Costco is charging, he said.

Walkinshaw, who also works as a funeral director in the Boston area, said he has caskets ranging from $350 to about $8,000. He also thinks Costco won't cut into the business of funeral homes.

``Other people have tried and found out the public is real comfortable buying caskets from funeral directors,'' he said. ``It's kind of one-stop shopping.''

Bonnie Busch, vice president in Costco's Midwest division, hopes shoppers will make one more stop. ``I hope they don't have any deaths in the family, but if they do I hope we can help people out,'' she said.

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(color) Costco stores, including this one in Chicago, began test-marketing caskets Monday.

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press