Mike's Laser Etching & Sartin Memorials

ORDERING ONLINE FROM MIKE’S LASER ETCHING/SARTIN MEMORIALS

In today’s world, you can purchase just about everything online. No more trips to the crowded malls or waiting in lines, just to find that the store has run out of stock of the particular item you are looking for. Instead, its as easy as a few clicks to find the item you want, enter your payment information and schedule delivery. You can even buy groceries online now. I can only imagine how much easier it would have made my life when I lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment building, with a newborn. I dreaded hauling those groceries up the steps and would have to carry the baby on each trip if no one was home to watch him while I ran down for another armful of bags.

That’s what its all about, isn’t it? Convenience. Although some may instead call it laziness.

While I do understand why some would shake their heads at people purchasing every little thing online, there are certainly items that it makes much more sense. A Memorial Monument, also known as a Headstone or Tombstone, is one of these items.

As with anything else not manufactured locally, there are several channels that items must go through in order to get to you, the consumer. Just think about any item at your local Walmart. Do you think that Walmart purchases their products directly from the very person who manufactures it? Certainly not. They are much too large of a company, and need way too much product to purchase each item directly where it is manufactured.

Instead, there are companies that Walmart works with you purchase these items for them. There can be up to 5 “middle men” which the product passes through before it gets to the shelves of Walmart for you to purchase. Of course, these “middle men” do not work for free and must make a living as well. Thus, the result is a steady increase in the cost, as each “middle man” adds their fee to the overall cost of the product.

In the United States Monument Business, it works the same way. This the reason that here at Mike’s Laser Etching, we have built relationships with quarries all over the world during the 50 years we have been in this business. Rather than contacting a local distributor of granite, we work with the actual people who quarry and cut the granite specific to their local area. At this point in time, we work with over 20 quarries, which are spread out on nearly every continent.

While this certainly takes time and effort to create and maintain these relationships, we see it as our duty, as it allows us to provide not only the highest quality granite to our clients, but at the lowest cost. With the “middle men” cut out, we pay the lowest price possible, and are thus able to pass these savings on to our clients. In addition to the high quality and savings, this also means that we are able to order custom designed monuments for our clients. Whether it is a Life Sized Guitar Monument, or a monument based off of a child’s favorite toy, such as our Dragon Monument, we can do anything and everything a client can dream up.

If you were to compare the services and prices offered by Mike’s Laser Etching/Sartin Memorials, with a local Monument Dealer, you will likely find several things. Some of the things we have noticed are:

-Local dealers only offered limited items and can only offer items they have “In Stock”
-They charge an additional fee for every letter or design placed on the monument
-Their “turn around” time is up to 6 times as long as MLE/Sartin Memorials
-Their prices are between 2 & 3 times as much as MLE/Sartin Memorials
-The finished product is a lower quality granite and design

For more information on each of these areas, keep an eye out for our next blog, “What Make’s Mike’s Laser Etching/Sartin Memorials Special?”

Although we did originally begin working only with local clients, as our business began to grow and clients began to refer us to friends and family across the United States, we set up an Online Sales Team. Pricing is the same as if you were to purchase a monument from us locally, as shipping and handling are included in the cost. The turn around time is the same as if you were purchasing the monument locally, as we process orders in the order they are received. And, our Certified Graphic Artists will work with clients online to ensure that they are able to design the monument just as they would if they were sitting in our office.

Why would you not want to order your monument online just to ensure you are getting exactly what your loved one deserves, at a fair and affordable price?

For more information, contact our Graphic Artists: Sara Jordan at sara@mikeslaseretching.com or Heather Rice at heather@mikeslaseretching.com. Or, give us a call at 877-836-0332.