New funeral home opens in Kokomo
Oct. 5—*Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the $985 direct cremation includes a funeral ceremony. It does not.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed a lot of industries and societal norms.
It led to working from home becoming an accepted aspect of American work life. It accelerated the rate of movies placed directly on streaming services instead of opening in movie theaters.
It also accelerated a growing trend in the funeral home industry: cremation.
During the height of the pandemic when the whole country was in lockdown, funeral homes were forced to hold services either virtually or in small, private settings. That led to many families turning to cremation.
It's that growing trend that Kokomo's new funeral home City of Firsts Cremation & Funeral Services by Rose & Geiger is looking to capitalize on by offering cremation at a cheaper rate than competitors.
The new business opened its doors last week at 132 W. Morgan St. Its two co-owners — Jeremy Geiger and Kimberly Rose — are both veterans of the funeral home business, both having worked at local funeral homes for several years. As such, they saw firsthand how the pandemic changed the funeral home business.
So earlier this year, the two left their jobs, bought the building on West Morgan Street and began drafting their business plan to offer affordable cremation options.
"We want people to stay in the community because people are going to Indy to get more affordable cremations under $1,000 or just over $1,000," Rose said. "If we can do that here, keep the money in the community, we can give back more."
City of Firsts Cremation & Funeral Services offers multiple direct cremation services.
The new funeral home's basic cremation package (without a funeral ceremony) starts at $985 and includes the direct cremation, a scattering tube and obituary on the business' website, with multiple other tiers that gradually increase in price and offerings, maxing out at $2,895. While City of Firsts Cremation & Funeral Services doesn't currently offer the cremation of dogs, it's something Rose and Geiger said they hope to offer in the future.
City of Firsts Cremation & Funeral Services is able to keep their cremation costs lower because it has less overhead and doesn't offer in-house funeral ceremonies.
That said, it does offer a variety of typical funeral home services, such as coordinating a funeral service at a third-party venue, immediate burial and other burial services and more.
"The younger generation don't want to go to a funeral home and sit in an awkward place," Geiger said. "They don't want to hear somebody they don't really know talk about their loved one they've lost. They would rather have their celebration on their own. If the cremains or body is present, we have to be in attendance for those services, but we're not trying to get in the middle of their celebration."
City of Firsts Cremation & Funeral Services is holding open houses from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Friday and Sunday at the business so the public can take a tour, ask questions and meet the staff.
Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich.
