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What is Layaway?  This is when you choose an item in the store, but you don’t have the money right now to pay for the full amount. Instead, you pay some now, and then when you have more money, you go back to the store and pay more.  When you have paid the full amount then you can finally take your purchase home.

Watch this video and see how it works.

Layaway was the credit card of the lower middle class. The family would go to the department store, pick out clothes, TV’s or housewares, take the items down to a special department, fill out the layaway card, pay a down payment. Then, the thrifty housewife would make payments. In this way even those at a lower economic level would be able to purchase the things they needed. The items were kept in a special storeroom, tagged, waiting for their future owners.

I worked in a JCPenney store as a Merchandising Manager in the 1980′s in a lower economic level population.  Huntington Park, Los Angeles. This program worked well, up to a point.  What if after a few payments, the customer saw something else in the store, a new model of TV or video recorder?  (this was the 1980′s remember) This is one of the reasons that Layaway was discontinued in many stores. The store had to take back “old” merchandise that was already cleaned from the store stock and in many cases, had to sell it at markdown prices.

Walmart hopes that the new Layaway will not have these problems and that customers will think of it as a credit card, and not return the merchandise. All I can say is Good Luck!