K-Mart brings back lay-a-way

[rob62521]

ABC News reported that K-Mart is bringing back lay-a-way for Christmas shoppers:

ABC News

Everything old is new again, right?

[sweeps]

Where's the blue light special?

[disneysteve]

Really a pathetic report, isn't it. People buying baby formula at the beginning of the month so that they don't run out of money. Ever hear of a budget, folks? And the woman talking about the lay-away was no better. First off, she's shopping for 3 infants looking for the perfect gifts. Do you really think the infants care what they get? Then she says how lay-away will let her buy more stuff and not be broke at the end of the year. And the K-Mart guy really sounded like a saint saying how they are doing it as a convenience for the customers. That's BS. They're doing it to get people to spend more.

[SnoopyCool]

Speaking of K-Mart... they're doing double coupons starting the 26th.

[simpleyme]

many moons ago .......
I bought a TV on layaway at Kmart
maybe they changed it but I paid 5 dollars to open the lay away account
and was so excited to get the TV that we paid it off a couple days later
so I kicked myself for being so stupid and paying extra for the TV for no reason at all

then to add insult to injury it was the worst TV I ever owned, and all before that were garage sale and freebie TVs that were either free or cost 5 dollars total

this TV got darker ever day people would come to our house and say gee your TV is dark,we were in denial we proclaimed it was " just the show"

finally one day DH opened the back of the TV,all we could see on the screen was peoples white teeth when they were speaking (my DH can fix most anything or at least figure out what happened to it ) inside the TV was a date of manufacturer and the TV was 10 years old the year we had bought it!

we took it to the tv repair shop were they said it would be 65 bucks to fix it , we just left the tv there and went and bought another, but for the life of me I cannot remember anything about the TV that replaced that one

[Ima saver]

I used layaway when i was young. They never charged anything to put something on layaway and it was a good place to keep christmas toys hidden. That is all I ever used layaway for, christmas toys.

[rob62521]

Granted, the lay-a-way system isn't perfect...but it might be far better than putting stuff on credit cards that may or may not get paid off. When our stores had lay-a-way, they didn't charge anything to set it up, but I guess all things change.

[scfr]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

People buying baby formula at the beginning of the month so that they don't run out of money. Ever hear of a budget, folks?

Well ... In defense of those folks, I guess that buying formula at the beginning of the month so they don't run out of money to buy it by the end of the month could be looked at as a very rudimentary type of budgeting. Perhaps they are new to the whole idea, and this is a first step?

When I was a green kid living on my own for the first time, not having a clue about budgeting, I would sometimes stock up on food after payday thinking "well, no matter what happens, at least I'll be able to eat." I learned to do that after running out of money and only having spaghetti noodles and ketchup in the house to eat for a couple days. In order to cover a basic need (food) and not incur any debt, I bought food. Call it a first baby step on the road to a real budget. It was a way of putting needs first ... yea, it was a cavewoman system for budgeting, but it was a step in the right direction. Not everyone enters the adult world with all of the necessary financial skills in place. Some of us have had to educate ourselves. Was my initial "food budget" very smart? Heck no. Am I much better at it now? Heck yes! But I had to start somewhere, and I learned very quickly that I had to make some changes if I was going to keep myself fed.

At least they have their priorities (feeding their kids) straight. Better buying enough formula to last the month at the beginning of the month than wasting it on something else and then not being able to feed the kiddos or asking for a handout.

[sweeps]

It's not just KMart that's bringing back layaway. Just saw this on the news: eLayaway

They're billing themselves as "the smart way to plan and pay" and "debt-free credit building at its best".

[kork13]

Maybe I just don't understand layaway, because I don't see how it's beneficial to people in any way...

i guess, ... how does it work, and what benefit does it give people?

[mikandmari]

Be careful using layaway for hard-to-find items. I remember hearing about people who kept making payments on their kids 'most wanted' item from Santa, but when they went to pick it up... it couldn't be found.

[poundwise]

I don't think I've ever used lay-a-way, even when I was younger and it was more prevalent, however, I don't mind its existence. While the best move is to save up for purchases, using lay-a-way to pay for items over time is certainly better than borrowing the money to buy to the items and then having to re-pay the debt, with interest, over time.

I believe that some people use lay-a-way at Christmastime to keep the presents hidden away (stored at the point-of-purchase) until near to the holiday. In fact, I believe K-Mart and Wal-Mart did away with lay-a-way in the first place due to the storage space required to keep all the items. (Plus, in Wal-Mart's case, at least, they wanted people to move into using the Wal-Mart credit card instead.)

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by scfr

Well ... In defense of those folks, I guess that buying formula at the beginning of the month so they don't run out of money to buy it by the end of the month could be looked at as a very rudimentary type of budgeting. Perhaps they are new to the whole idea, and this is a first step?

At least they have their priorities (feeding their kids) straight. Better buying enough formula to last the month at the beginning of the month than wasting it on something else and then not being able to feed the kiddos or asking for a handout.

True. Hadn't thought of it that way. I'd much rather have them run out of money for cigarettes and beer than baby formula.

[jamiefic]

It is really interesting with the economy and bringing back layaway... Interesting thoughts and memories for everyone too.