Dusting off the layaway plan
Wal-Mart is bringing back layaway services. Kmart had the service three years ago, as seen at a Bronx store (Nov. 17, 2008) Credit: GETTY IMAGES
In a sign of the times, Wal-Mart is bringing back the old-fashioned layaway system for buying things.
Unlike using a credit card, which means getting now and paying later, often at ruinous interest rates, buying on layaway means picking out what you want and having the store hold it for you while you make payments. When you've paid the full amount, plus a small fee, you take the item home.
Often a pacesetter in retailing, this time Wal-Mart is following in the footsteps of competitors, such as Sears, which have brought back layaway since the financial crisis of 2008. Wal-Mart was looking for a way to boost sales to customers in straitened circumstances -- and those folks requested for it.
There's something bittersweet in all this. The return of layaway is a sign of how hard things are just now for blue-collar and low-income Americans, two groups no longer so easily distinguishable from one another.
On the other hand, shoppers' eagerness for layaway is a welcome sign that Americans are willing to save up for what they want, the way they used to before the ethos of easy credit and instant gratification got us into so much trouble. Layaway is an old-fashioned device for committing to a savings goal, much like the Christmas clubs that paid no interest and wouldn't return your money until the holiday.
So welcome home, planning. Good to see you again, prudence. It's just a shame it took such a bad economy to bring you two back.
