Layaway was also an awesome tool for parents with young kids (like me in 1984). You could tell the kid that they wouldn't get it today, but you'd grab it off the shelf and march back to layaway. Now the kid knows the toy is "on the way," but if they misbehave over the next couple of weeks, mom could call and cancel layaway.

Sounds like a nice idea to me. Imagine a world without instant gratification (both adults AND kids).

Ah
Stores should have never stopped this.

I remember this was how mom got xmas.

I used to love layaway but I'd put stuff aside in November to have for Christmas. Stretched the payments a bit more.

this was great. i couldnt believe walmart ever got rid of it. i always layaway'd anything that cost more than $100. made me think for a while if i really needed it or not.

i remember these, but never got it. would the products not be there if you saved your own money?

@Elcheecho: It served as BOTH a "hold" and an installment plan, IIRC.

So it was both a guarantee of availability and a deferred payment plan.

I remember when I was reallllllly little, I wanted a Nintendo (the original one). My parents took me to K Mart and they gave me like 10$ to put it on layaway. My brother and I would do chores around the house and make a few dollars a week and each week my mother would take us there to put it towards our remaining balance. It was such an awesome experience to finally pay that off and take it home. Ahh,, nostalgia.

I really don't see the point of layaway. Why not make monthly installments on a savings account and at least earn some interest on it?

What? I refuse to participate in a purchasing system that makes sense! I demand to pay 20% over the advertised price!

@Segador: use it right and that's how it works. I can't tell you how many people would come in to the store that I worked in while I was in college, lay away $100's worth, then never pick it up and not come get the 10% (-$5fee) they had put down back. And they would do this over and over. No sense whatsoever.

Of course with so many retailers declaring bankruptcy, you'd have to be pretty careful who you use layaway with.

I'd imagine you could run into the same problems some folks have had using gift cards if the company you're trying to buy from happens to go under.

@dragonvpm: Oooo. That's a really good point that I hadn't thought of. Is there a set prcoedure for if this happens? Are there any rules to ensure that people would get their money back?

@The Name's Ash78, Housewares:

@The Name's Ash78, Housewares: Whoops, not sure what happened there. Anywhoo I hit reply with the intent of telling you what a fantastic idea that is.

IIRC, didn't some commenter on here basically say that very few consumers actually wind up fully paying for what they layaway and just ask for refunds?

Why not just stick the money for whatever you want to buy in a savings account, that way you can earn interest on it, and when you save enough withdraw the money and buy whatever it is?

My mother grew up in a very frugal household, and she still is insanely careful with money. Growing up, layaway was a regular part of life for back-to-school clothes and other major purchases. For the holidays she always had a Christmas Club, and I'm not sure, but wouldn't be surprised if she still has one if her credit union still offers it.

@Triborough: No guarantee then the item will still be the same price, or even be there.

@K-Bo: If people can't be bothered to pick up items they've paid for, that's their own damn fault. It's still better than buying a $3k television on their already maxed-out credit cards at 23.9% interest- at least they haven't committed money they haven't yet made to debt they can't afford.

I still love the look on salespeople's faces when I count out several thousand dollars in cash to them at the counter for large purchases.

@Triborough: Availability becomes an issue with this method. While most products are readily available amid various shops, let's take something like the Nintendo Wii as an extreme example.

You see a Wii at K-Mart and decide you're going to plunk some money into a savings account and pick it up when you finally reach $250 (assuming U.S. dollar). Upon reaching that mark, that K-Mart is sold out...so is the Wal-Mart, Toys'r'Us, Gamestop, and Sam's Club. Everywhere is sold out, so you're forced to wait. When the next one appears, they're doing one of their infamous bundles, and now it's $350. More saving, only for it to be sold out when you get there due to high demand.

You're ultimately chasing a carrot on a treadmill.

There are plenty of plusses to this idea, however, but those apply as a general bit of advice.

Unless the store has a specific bar coding system and a secure area to keep the items in - I can easily see some retail workers putting the item back on the shelf to be sold to someone else or just getting lost in the thousands of products that move through the store's backroom every day.

@Zagroseckt: Exactly. Layaway was the only way my family had Christmas back in the day. Mom would put everything "on hold" and then when she got paid she could make payments on it, and not have to worry about it selling out or frantically trying to shop the day before.

@The Name's Ash78, Housewares: Exactly. The things I used to lay away were stuff like a particular pair of boots that might be going out of season, or toys that were a little more rare and hard to get. So it was possible that the item wouldn't be there if you took the time to save your money on your own.

I spent a year working for a bike shop and they did layaway (this was fairly recent, in 2004) and it was much more popular than I would have thought. I saw a lot of it filtering through the accounting information, especially as the holiday season drew near. I think a few people put holiday bikes for their kids on layaway just so they had an excuse to leave them with us instead of trying to store them at home and hide them from the kids.

I think layaway is still done in small businesses more than we're aware. I think all the bike shop had up was a small sign that said that financing or layaway were available payment options, and all the sales people knew it was an option that could be offered to customers if they seemed that they might be interested in it, so you might have shopped there a hundred times and not realized it was something the shop was willing to do. Your favorite small business might do layaway still and you might not even realize it.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: The same price is a big thing. A lot of places don't regulate about sale or clearance items, so you could get something at an amazing clearance price and not have to have all the money up front for it. I used it for this pretty often when I found a good sale on something I needed, but was a few weeks out from a pay day.

Also, some stores would automatically mark any item you put on layaway down, if it went on sale. I remember the Ames Department stores doing that. I miss that store. Loved their craft/sewing department, clothes and toys.

@G99: That's what the photo dept is for, at least at Walgreens.

"Imagine that, saving up and only buying something once you can afford to pay for it in cash."

While this argument is valid for those who don't have the money to begin with, layaways are great for big ticket items. Imagine an interest-free payment plan for a big screen TV. Not to mention as others have said, this removes the impulse-buy temptation. If you find the same item for a lesser price elsewhere, and the store won't price match, you can cancel the layaway. Besides, paying off the item over a short time nets your bank accounts a little more interest.

@xthexlanternx: See, now that's brilliant!

@Zagroseckt: Stores did this because they realized they could make $115 on a $100 purchase by offering credit instead of layaway. :(

@G99: They way Kmart used to do it was to bag and tag an entire purchase and shelve it in a specific back room. Not high tech, but I don't recall any of our stuff ever going astray.

@G99: I remember one year in my youth when my mother went on a terrible rampage through Ames because the items she had put on layaway were not all there when she went to pick them up.

It was really funny because she worked there at the time. They found her stuff real fast.

@The Name's Ash78, Housewares: Also an excellent tool for mothers with insufficient closet space! Let someone else find someplace to hide that thing for a few months, right?

@thepassenger: Same here. My Mom always put our back to school clothes (and backpacks) on layaway. X-mas was done the same way for the most part. It's nice to see layaway making a come back (although it's unfortunate that our economy had to go down the hole for it to happen).

I remember using layaway when I was around 10 years old.
The Power Rangers Green Dragon-zord just came out and was $40.
My parents decided to teach me the value of saving money by having me get it on layway, and pay for it in installments, instead of giving me a loan on my allowance.
The day I finally paid it off and got to pick it up in the store was one of the best days up to that point in my childhood.

Layaway is essentially giving the store an interest-free loan. Why? Also, if the store goes under, you're an unsecured creditor (translation, you ain't never seeing any of that $).

@blackmage439: Interest-free plan, sure. But you don't get the enjoyment out of it until it's fully paid for.

This is a very troubling sign. Layaway is horrible for retailers. They basically end up renting trailers to store all the layaway items and it ends up costing a ton in terms of those fees and added manpower. Then they inevitably get stuck with stuff that they have to mark down like mad when people default. Retailer HATE this.

Michael, you actually admit on the internet that you watch Oprah?

When my wife started using lay-away 3 years ago, despite the availability of credit, that's when I knew I made the right decision marrying her.

My parents did this for my birthday when I was a kid as its in January, so to get me something for Christmas and then my birthday and put the money all out in 2 months. It was usually for a big item like a bike. The cool thing was I knew what I was getting as I got to pick it out.

@fredmertz:

Maybe, but I guess it pays them off. Kmart (and Sears which offers layaway this year) seems to be doing good with layaway...I bet Wal-Mart is kicking themselves they got rid of it. It isn't a service that I would ever use, but I can see why people may want to use it.

@G99: When I worked in retail, you would be shocked how many people just forgot about layaway items. We'd get 2-3 payments, then nothing for 30-60 days. We'd make phone calls and the computer system could send reminder post cards, yet some people just never got back to us. Our maximum layaway was 120 days (though as long as someone continued making payments most managers would keep it going) and after that, all payments were forfeit and the stock went back on the shelves if no arrangements were made.

That was the ONLY way something on layaway ever went back on the shelves in the stores I worked in. Otherwise it got kept on a shelf in the secure storage locker (where the high dollar items were kept) in the back until it was paid for.

The way retail has evolved, I wonder if most stores have the inventory area to dedicate to layaway items. That's one aspect of this that gets overlooked -- the store has to dedicate square footage to layaway items. That footage is by nature less productive than the retail space. I hope more stores go back to offering layaway, but I see plenty of reasons why they won't, or maybe even shouldn't.

@Elcheecho: Wal-Mart is in cahoots with Mr. Murphy; the item you want is never available at the time you go to purchase it.

I don't understand the difference between just saving your own money and the buying it vs. layaway other than that the purchaser is fiscally irresponsible

@Segador: That's probably because they're trying to memorize what you look like. So if they ever see you outside of work they can mug you, since you're the type of person to carry around several thousand dollars worth of cash.

I had completely forgotten about layaways. That's how my mom used to pay for my new school clothes every summer when I was little.

More on the return of layaway here: [www.retailcustomerexperience.com]

Layaway is also a great solution to where to hide the xmas presents so the kids don't find them!

We also used layaway for back-to-school shopping...I'd pick out clothes and school supplies mid-summer, and get everything the week before school started.