A Classic Case of Stiff Competition

An angel on the billboard points the way to what may be the ultimate convenience store--a market for those who seek eternity at an earthly price.

Shoppers can wander among plastic flowers, coffins and polished headstones, some sporting “Sale” signs.

Michel Leclerc’s chain of nearly four dozen franchises, which he says features prices 40% below the competition, has shaken up the monopolistic world of French undertakers.

“Here, people can take a cart and do their shopping,” Leclerc said. “I don’t know if they’ll walk out with a coffin under the arm . . . but the time is over when you put them between four walls and force something on them.”

Leclerc, who now has 182 funeral agencies and 45 market franchises, made an unceremonious entree into the trade in 1984 with an all-night standoff against undertakers who tried to prevent him from burying a body. Riot police finally intervened.

He says he’s also faced hundreds of suits by those seeking to keep him out of the funeral business.