Funeral service site upsets retailers | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

New Brighton retailers are shocked a funeral service has set up shop in the heart of the seaside mall.

Starlight Funeral Service, which has an American owner, opened its doors two weeks ago and has city council permission to establish another office and showroom in the central city early next year.

New Brighton businessman Roger Hunt, who has been working in the suburb for 34 years, said his chemist shop and other retailers had been fielding complaints from customers.

"Quite candidly, we need to see them go," he said.

Hunt said Brighton was trying to market itself as a holiday spot and a funeral service in the mall would be damaging to the image it was portraying.

But funeral director David Tweddell said no embalming would be done on site and there would be no bodies brought in for viewing.

Churches in the area were letting their buildings be used for that if needed.

He said this was how funeral services in the United States operated and Christchurch people had to "get with the times".

"This is the year 2000, not the 1800s," Tweddell said.