PADUCAH — The supply chain crisis is affecting nearly every industry, and the funeral industry is no different. Between a shortage of supplies for monuments and a backlog of orders, it could take longer to get a monument to remember your loved ones.
You’ve seem the impact of the supply chain shortages when shopping for groceries and for those gifts for under the Christmas tree. Now, it’s impacting ordering monuments for the funeral industry.
Tribute Monuments with Brook Hill Cemetery is experiencing a backlog in monuments. Brandon Orr with Milner & Orr Funeral Home said a lot of factors have played roles in the delay.
“One of the supplies being the stencils that are used to be able to etch in the names, dates and those kinds of things on the monuments. There’s also a shortage of the glue and compound that used to put the monuments together,” said Orr.
They order stone from Georgia and overseas. Before the pandemic, it took six to eight weeks. During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wait time only went up by a couple weeks, but Orr said they’re playing catch up.
“Now, as we’re trying to play catch up in the supply, we’re looking at 18 to 20 weeks as far as supply time to us,” said Orr.
But Orr said that won’t change the quality of monuments for your loved ones.
“There is no shortage in the options available for them. What it does mean is that the process from the time they order it to the time it’s actually placed in the cemetery is just going to be a longer time frame than it was before,” said Orr.
Orr said warm weather is best for setting monuments, so the issue could cause more of a backlog down the line.
“This delay in production could potentially create a backlog in monuments that will have to be set in the spring time,” said Orr.
COVID-19 deaths, nationwide, over the last year-and-a-half have also contributed to the strain on monument orders from funeral homes.
