On designing a memorial, times have changed. When Robert Borth started in 1988, if the customer wanted a drawing, it was done by hand in St. Cloud and mailed back and forth. It usually took up to a month to get back and show the customer. If they wanted changes, it was a slow process. Today, we do a computerized drawing in front of the customer in the granite color of choice within minutes and print it out or email to them to show the other family members what they think. This makes closing the deal much faster and easier. Back then we had less than 100 designs to choose from; today we have over 15,000 designs to choose from, all of them on our website. Also, back then etchings were done by hand and took days to hand-etch; today we have our own laser-etching machine, and we laser-etch everything right in Sleepy Eye. We test everything on 12” x 12″ granite floor tile before we etch on the memorial. We laser-etch anything you have a picture of, including aerial farm scenes, photos, cars, trucks, and tractors. Give us a picture, and we will laser-etch it on black granite.

Granite has also changed. Back then most granites used where from the USA, and in the mid-90s, India and China started shipping their granites to the USA. That changed everything. India and China started sending new shapes, new colors of memorials never seen before, and they could sell their granites for less than an American granite today. 85% of sales are black granite from India. They took over sales from China when tariffs were added to their prices a few years ago.

Today most people are being cremated instead of a casket, and instead of getting a double grave lot, you can get by using just one space. Most people still want to have an upright memorial since they are easier to find, and a flush marker gets covered with grass and dirt and does not wash off by itself. We have had memorials installed all over the USA. Right now, we are making one for someone to be shipped down to Georgia. They will have someone down there install it. We have also installed memorials down in Texas, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, and all over Minnesota. Most of them we install ourselves, and we can produce anything a customer wants, like the semi we did in Wabasso, MN, for the Arends family. She came in with some ideas of a semi she wanted, and we made up a drawing of a semi with chrome pipes and visor they bought from a semi dealer. They took off the Peterbilt emblem from his truck and we mounted it on the memorial.

Nowadays, anyone can sell you a memorial: funeral homes, someone selling from a book or brochure out of their house, and of course, over the internet. Most people want to see the size of memorial and granite color in person, not from a book or small granite sample. The warranty is only good with the person you bought from, not another monument company. When choosing a memorial from someone, it may be the right choice to stick with someone local with a store and display.