Bring Back Lay-Away!

[blogslut]

Seriously. Bring it back.

Here's a start:

http://www.elayaway.com/

Note: K-Mart and Sears still offer lay-away payment programs. WalMart ended lay-away payments in favor of WalMart credit cards.

[aquart]

1. It's been back for months.

Of course, if WalMart is your only standard...

[blogslut]

3. No, WalMart isn't my only standard

:eyes:

However, around here, it's my only physical option.

[ejpoeta]

2. walmart isn't going to bring it back. my sister was in layaway

back before she made them move her out of there. LOL! and she has left altogether a few years ago anyway. she said that layaway was always a such a hassle and that they didn't make money. at least kmart charges a fee for putting stuff on layaway, giving a person incentive to actually pick it up. i think layaway is better myself. but think of how much they make on those credit card purchases! uggh.

[Canuckistanian]

4. Unfortunately, Lay-Away costs the stores money

Warehousing takes a lot of expense and so does the administrative work needed to run such a scheme.

But is it worth losing a sale over?

I could see some stores bringing it back, but with some kind of minimum price.

[blogslut]

6. I'm okay with that

In fact, I'm not opposed to the inflated costs of rent-to-own either.

What I'm really advocating for (and neglected to state in my OP) is the need for internet-based layaway payment programs. With places like Sears and K-Mart, you have to physically visit the store.

[Canuckistanian]

8. And how does one usually pay for online purchases? With a credit card.

Now if you used something like a "Paypal Interac only" payment system, I'd be for it.

[blogslut]

9. One can also pay with debit cards

Mind you, a lot of sites won't take debit card payments unless they're issued by Visa or other big name providers (thanks, eshirl) but just the same, a Visa debit card works pretty much anywhere a regular cc works.

EDIT ADD: correction

[eShirl]

10. "a lot of sites won't take debit card payments unless they're issued by Visa"

Where did you get that information? My debit card is MasterCard and I've never come across a site that takes credit cards that wouldn't accept it.

[blogslut]

11. Sorry

You are correct. AMEX, Visa, Master Card - the big names. I apologize.

[Canuckistanian]

12. Yes, we're talking about the same thing

In Canada, we say "Interac" when we mean the debit card system.

My apologies.

[blogslut]

13. I did not know that

Thanks for the information. :)

[xchrom]

5. sure -- if they charge a fee for warehousing. nt

[RufusTFirefly]

7. For a moment I thought you meant Kenny Boy!

I think Lay-Away is a good description for him.

He's probably kicking it back somewhere with a pina colada in his hand.

[BR_Parkway]

14. I'd rather not give them any money in advance and risk being left

with nothing if they should close down suddenly - like has happened to many gift card holders.

Set up a Christmas club or similar with you bank or credit union and pay yourself, then go shopping when you have the cash (and little bitty bit of interest) and negotiate the price of what you want since you're paying cash for it (Credit or Debit card costs the merchant 2-4% to process, they may be willing to work with you)

[Statistical]

15. Cash isn't free either.

Cash is subject to theft by employees.

Cash requires bank deposit and for major retailers and armored truck pickups.
Cash requires keeping sufficient reserve of smaller bills for change.

Keeping cash above a certain amount on locations requires a "real safe" and a true jewelers safe (not those $199 tin cans everyone sells as "safes" can cost $10K+.

Retailers long time ago realized cash is expensive. It needs to be counted and recounted (to avoid theft by person counting). It needs to be deposited via drop or armored car pickup (even simple retailers drop account costs a lot of money). The banks needs to verify the amount and that involves recounting again. Often the banks # and retailers # don't match requiring a recount w/ both parties present.

Walmart partially solved this program a long time ago by "allowing" cash back with debit card purchase.

By "allowing" cash back they substantially reduced the cash on hand at end of day and all the costs associated with it.

A major retailer "cost" to accept credit cards is now less than 1.25%.

[BR_Parkway]

16. True enough - I tend to deal with small, local retailers as often as

possible and think in terms of what me and my fellow small merchants do rather than the big stores

[Statistical]

17. Agreed,

For a small merchant (say under million in sales annually) the credit card costs are higher and the deposit costs for cash are lower.

As sales grow CC costs shrink but cash costs increase.
Twice a day armored car service tends to run about $50K annually. Imagine what that costs a business with 100 locations.

[tabbycat31]

19. true enough

but as a former cash office staffer at a big box store, the cash needed to be done whether it was Black Friday, or a random January Tuesday where we closed early for a snowstorm.

When really busy, we did open registers as "no cash" to prevent counting down another register.

[Stinky The Clown]

18. Marshall's and Home Goods both offer it.

So I assume all TJMaxx brands do as well.

Layaway really is a very good system that works and has worked for years. I remember when it was the only choice for most people.