The memorial center opened Sept. 15 at a former Enterprise car rental site. The new business will employ one person full-time and also uses local services, such as a Dayton embalmer, Lusain said. Currently, it is open by appointment only.
Grunn Lusain has provided funeral services and supplies to the Dayton region since 2012. The company opened the new location to make it more convenient for area customers to meet with its staff, he said.
Lusain said the memorial center sells products at prices up to 75 percent less than traditional funeral homes. For example, Grunn Lusain sells a casket for $500 that most area funeral homes sell for $1,700, he said.
“I own the casket company, so we are a distributor. We get everything at wholesale prices,” Lusain said. Regionally, the company sells about 50 caskets monthly, including to other funeral homes, he said.
The company also performs funeral services at Dayton-area churches and chapels through the Cincinnati-based Grunn Funeral Home. Opened last year, Grunn is the third-largest funeral home in Cincinnati by the volume of services provided, Lusain said.
“We serve about 40 families a month, just in our funeral home,” Lusain said. That number includes funerals in the Dayton, Middletown and Cincinnati markets, he said.
Lusain, a real estate developer, opened Main Street Caskets in Cincinnati in 2009. Last year, he partnered with Robert Grunn, a licensed Ohio funeral director, to offer additional funeral options at competitive prices.
About the Author