HASfter clothing, cars, household appliances or even books, the second-hand market has just opened up to a more unexpected sector: funerals! For the past few months, a Nantes start-up has been offering second-hand tombstones. If some come from unsold stocks at marble makers, most come mainly from concessions have come to an end and, consequently, doomed to destruction when the families or relatives of the deceased do not renew the lease. In this case, the law is formal: the contents of the vault are placed in an ossuary and everything that composes it falls into the public domain.
“Communities with whom we are in partnership warn us, we travel to take photos of the monuments before they are dismantled and then we put them on our site”, explains Hadrien Castaing, young general manager of Memorio. Of course, the monument in question does not land on the Internet without first undergoing a little grooming. Facing his screen, Lucas takes care of retouching the image by making the engraved inscriptions disappear in a few clicks. “I outline the names and dates to erase them, he specifies. I depersonalize the stone to guarantee its anonymity. It is only once the identification elements have been removed that the object is imported into the virtual showroom with a short description and all these characteristics: model, dimensions, color and, of course, the price.
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Rates which, precisely, give full meaning to the approach since they range between 550 and 4,750 euros. “With us, the average basket is around 1,800 euros, proudly announces the boss. We said to ourselves why not give new life to monuments destined to be destroyed knowing that, new, they cost between 3,000 and 10,000 euros, and many do not have the means to pay for them. »
1,800 euros instead of 6,000
This is the case of Maxime who, when his father died last June, had just moved to the North. Being an only son, this 30-year-old therefore had to manage the funeral arrangements alone and, above all, pay the bill, all this after having already financed his own move. “I wanted a good stone, not just leaving a marble floor. I had quotes made, there were around 6,000 euros. On Memorio, I found almost the same stone I wanted. With delivery, cleaning and installation, I paid a total of 1,800 euros. Ordered at the beginning of the summer, the monument arrived two months later in the cemetery where it was installed by a local partner marble worker.
A monument placed for the first time 33 years ago on a previous burial, which posed no philosophical problem for Maxime. On the contrary, he himself would see with a good eye that this stone, which now covers a family vault where the young man has also “reserved” a place for himself – he has already had his own name and his date of birth –, benefits others. Of course, as soon as possible! “In any case, it is impeccable, like new! he congratulates himself.
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Once the transaction has been completed, part of the amount collected is donated to the seller (often a town hall), who will receive between 600 and 1,000 euros. The rest is then shared between the marble worker in charge of customization and reassembly, and the delivery man. As for Memorio, he pockets a commission in passing.
Ecological aspect
For their part, funeral professionals risk looking gray. Those who organized the funeral of Maxime’s father, for example, were very annoyed. “They took it very badly, remembers the Northerner. When I called them to check the dimensions they told me to do it myself with the graveyard, they were pretty curt and hung up. “Hadrien Castaing, he defends himself from wanting to bring an entire economy to its knees, and prefers to play on the emotional register. “Of course, the mission of a marble worker is to sell new monuments, but it breaks his heart, too, to see pieces of granite of very beautiful design go to destruction, so he has every interest in reassembling old ones. . »
Not sure that everyone is animated by the same sentimentality, especially since the Nantes entrepreneur now aims to encourage individuals to sell their tombstone on Memorio rather than on Le bon coin, as is happening more and more (a dozen ads currently). Not to mention the growth prospects in neighboring countries. “We realized that in the Benelux, they have the same concession system as here, so why not. »
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And then Hadrien Castaing can finally put forward the ultimate argument that hits the mark today: ecology. “We have customers who are very sensitive to this aspect, and even if some monuments cross the whole of France before being reassembled, the carbon impact is minimal compared to the destruction. Good news, even the dead will be able to do something for the planet!