A Toronto-based casket manufacturer has taken to Twitter to report historically high child casket sales by the company he works for..The casket salesman, who asked to be referred to by his first name only, told the Western Standard his company has never seen such a significant rise in bulk sales of caskets typically used to bury children. Mick said all producers are seeing this huge uptick in youth-sized coffin sales..Children's caskets typically accommodate the bodies of children aged between 18 months to around 10 years of age.."There's no denying it, I would say the sales versus the pre-pandemic period were probably up 30%, maybe 40%. And in this industry, for a 30% or 40% increase in sales, something dramatic has to have happened. And it's not just local to specific towns," Mick said.."It's throughout North America, at least the customers we deal with. We have a few customers over in England, through Ireland, and Scotland as well. And they're also seeing some growth, but not as radical as [it is] in North America. North America seems to be experiencing it at a higher rate than everywhere else that that we deal with specifically.".Mick is a salesman for a casket manufacturer that has been making caskets since the mid-'80s. He said that the industry has changed dramatically over the last couple of decades..Where previously funeral homes had a long-term monopoly on the sale of coffins to the bereaved, legislation was amended to allow other businesses into the manufacture and distribution of caskets. At that point, the wholesale side of casket manufacture picked up in Canada and the Ontario firm began landing big customers..The firm manufactures and distributes between 80% and 90% of the Canadian bulk order demand via wholesalers, including Costco..The vast majority of business is with wholesalers who then sell caskets to either customers individually, or to the funeral homes.."So one of our most popular public customers ... is Costco. Costco, believe it or not, supplies a majority of the funeral homes, so the funeral homes will go to a company like Costco whereas they won't come directly to us," he said..Mick said it's generally understood in the industry stakeholders don't discuss death or make it a topic of casual conversation. He believes, however, things need to open up somewhat in the light of the increased figures in all-cause mortality rates in Canada — a statistic laid bare by the company's growing caskets sales figures.."That's another thing about this industry I wanted to touch on is that it's almost unwritten law to not talk about the deaths. So anybody in our industry — if you can get someone to talk, I'll be surprised because I think it's just like bad juju associated with, you know, speaking of people passing," he said..Mick said his company usually sells between 50 and 60 child caskets per year. In the last eight months, they have sold approximately 450 child-sized caskets..He said infant-sized caskets sales have so far remained steady "but everything else has increased."."The significant increase [in casket sales] would be what we would call the youth size, so sub-five foot units, and 50 to 60 would be a normal year for us. They're [normally] our least common size. But I think we're up around 450 in the last, I guess, eight months now."."Yeah. I know that it's a scary number. But one thing I also wanted to touch on, too, is when the pandemic happened, everyone locked down. People weren't travelling. Accidental deaths were almost non-existent, the roads were empty. Nobody was travelling. Nobody was skydiving. Nobody was scuba diving — doing crazy things with sharks, or anything — anything adventurous really. So the accidental death rates dropped dramatically. So as people started to get vaccinated and get back to life as normal, the sales ramped back up."."But they ramped back up, and kept ramping up.".Mick said given the upward trend in youth casket sales, he expects bulk orders to continue to grow.."I think there's going to be ... a steady increase in deaths just because of the trend of caskets getting ordered. Costco is not in the habit of sitting on stock," he said.."They're the ones who placed the big order for the little caskets. And there's one thing that I do know is, they placed a lot of orders for big caskets — like the large sized ones as well, he said. "But their last few orders have been staggering in comparison to what they were ordering before. So you know I hate to say it, but like people are literally [clamouring] to get into the casket [business]. These days, it's a very popular, unfortunately, a popular trend.".Mick confirmed he and his close colleagues and family are in agreement that sales are on the rise.."Yeah, we're definitely discussing the rise. There's been no denying ... of like how things are getting busier, and we've actually made the decision to eliminate some units that we use as selling stock to focus on ones that are selling more.".Mick said he and his family have an idea about what is responsible for the unprecedented increase in coffin sales.."We all think it's something to do with the vaccines. I don't want to say we're a group of people who weren't convinced [by the science], but you know, I think [a family member] got one dose, had a horrible reaction and then nobody else in his family got it. No one in my family has gotten it."."It's something serious, causing young people to just immediately die.".Mick explained he felt the need to get onto Twitter about what he was seeing and tell people something is awry. He said other people in the business are noticing, too, and not just in Canada.."Yes. 100% so that 100% comes only from like three people I've spoken to and that is just because I don't, I'm not really in the nitty gritty. I don't speak to the people on the front lines as I would call it. But through that post that I made on Twitter, I had one lady reach out to me, and then another gentleman. And then the other person I talked to is somebody I speak to in person and other funeral directors."."I think one of them was from Mississippi and the other [funeral director] was from Pennsylvania. And the lady had said to me she sent me a message. She said, 'What you said was so interesting. I had to follow,' so I got a direct message from her where she was saying that they've also seen an uptick in young people dying in her funeral home. And she went on to tell me about, you know, a couple of instances in the last week.".Mick first shared his casket story on Twitter back in April and didn't get too much of a response. Now, the tweets are being shared and people are digging them up and following him and commenting anew. Commenters include other people in the undertaker business who are seeing those same trends.."It's just now that people are seeing it. They're disgusted and of course, the disgust comes with sorrow. It's not like anybody's disgusted at what I'm saying — they're just disgusted at the situation and the need for [extra caskets]."
