Wal-Mart cuts layaway; area retailers keep it

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Sept. 14 that it wouldn’t offer layaway after this holiday season, citing rising costs and declining use.

“More and more customers are embracing other payment options,” said spokeswoman Linda Blakley.

Wal-Mart is betting customers will embrace cash-back and zero-interest incentives on store credit cards.

Wal-Mart’s announcement prompted Kmart Corp. to fire back the same day, issuing a statement that it’s keeping layaway.

Those behemoths of discount retailing aside, Dan Butler, vice president of merchandising and retail operations for the National Retail Federation, said layaway really died 20 years ago with a quiet whimper.

“I did an informal poll with people and said, ‘When was the last time you put something on layaway?’” Butler said. “What I heard from most people was, ‘Well, I never really have, but my folks always did.’ There’s sort of this sentimental attachment to the concept of layaway, but layaway’s really a business process of the past.”

Butler said layaway is so outdated that NRF members don’t track its usage.

Layaway started in the 1920s and 1930s as a Depression-era tool for retailers to attract customers.

By the 1950s, credit cards started eroding the lure of layaway.

PFI Western Store owner Randy Little said he’s always offered layaway and will continue to do so.

But it’s not nearly as popular as it was when he opened his store 31 years ago, he said.

“Boatloads of people (used to) put things on layaway. They’d buy boots and shirts and holiday stuff,” Little said. “Today, they just don’t do that.”

Judy Gravett, who owns Just For Him with her husband, Bob, said they offer layaway, but only 1 percent or 2 percent of their customers use it. Most of them use layaway for expensive holiday gifts, such as pipes and chess sets.

Layaway may be most popular in Springfield at Justice Jewelers. Owner Woody Justice said 20 percent of his customers use his six-months, no-interest layaway option. Most layaway fans are young people buying engagement and wedding sets.

“I think it’s a very positive thing,” Justice said. “(Layaway) would be one of the last things we’d get rid of.”[[In-content Ad]]