It's a great way to save money and not run up your credit card, so why do so few people use layaway these days? The truth is, while some department stores have stopped offering the service, many still do but don't talk about it much. I think this is a great "everyday guy" kind of story.
Some of the more important purchases of my life were layaway purchases. I bought my wife's wedding ring and later bought a treasured, hand-carved rocking horse for my daughter on layaway plans. I was, like lots of you, a reporter trying to stretch a buck.
|
E-MAIL NEWSLETTER |
|
Sign up to receive Al's Morning Meeting by e-mail:
* Click here (sent Monday-Friday at 7 a.m.)
| |
The St. Petersburg Times said:
Layaway shoppers put down a deposit and make payments but don't pick up the goods until they have paid in full. That's an increasingly quaint concept in a buy-now-pay-later society.
Beall's Department Stores, like many of its competitors, stopped offering layaway in the early 1980s.
"It's so much easier for people to get credit and get the stuff immediately that they really don't have to put things on layaway," said Stephen Knopik, Beall's president.
You won't find layaway at many other department stores either. Dillard's and Burdines don't offer it. Still, layaway is far from extinct. The old-fashioned service attracts a small but ardent following. Among the big discount chains, Wal-Mart and Kmart offer layaway, but Target does not. It isn't always advertised, but if you ask, you can find layaway at many stores selling clothing, electronics, jewelry, musical instruments, or antiques and collectibles.
Some stores place a limit on how long you can layaway.
The St. Pete Times reported:
Many Wal-Mart customers use layaway year-round for big-ticket items such as televisions, bicycles, and diamond rings. The service is also popular for back-to-school items such as uniforms, clothing, and school supplies.
Normally Wal-Mart offers a 60-day layaway, but for the holidays, the layaway period starts in September and ends Dec. 12, allowing goods that aren't picked up to be returned to the shopping floor well before Christmas. Customers who don't finish paying for their layaway items get their money back minus a service charge of as much as $10.
Some stores restrict the use of layaway. At Circuit City, for example, it's not available for purchases of less than $50 or for computers or computer-related merchandise. Obsolescence is a big concern.
"If they don't pay it off, we could have a product that isn't worth as much as it was 90 days before," spokesman Steve Mullen said.
Tips:
· Here are some good tips about use of layaway from the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions.
· The Federal Trade Commission has an old web page featuring layaway tips. The tips are old, but still seem to hold up as good advice.
Gift Card Rules
I was beginning to dislike gift cards. So many of the big retailers were putting restrictions on how they could be used and when. Last year, lots of retailers got the bright idea to start charging customers a service fee every month if the card was not used up within 6 months or so. Customers were furious. If you didn't use a card within a year you might be out of money by the time you tried to cash it in.
But this Christmas, it appears the big retail names have snapped back to reality and changed their rules.
The Detroit Free Press has a dandy roundup of the new rules for this Christmas buying season. Consumer Reports also has a nice advice page about gift cards.
Gift cards are important to retailers. As the Freep points out:
Consumers like gift cards mostly for their convenience. Retailers like them for many reasons. The cards save sales that otherwise would be lost if a shopper cannot find an appropriate gift; they give retailers access to consumers' dollars until recipients use the cards; and, if a recipient never redeems the card, the retailer has made pure profit.
In addition, about two-thirds of gift card recipients spend 15 to 20 percent more than the face value of the card ...
The cards have also cut down significantly on fraud because, unlike gift certificates, they cannot easily be forged, said Rob Markey, a director of Boston consulting firm Bain & Company.
Since 1997, sales of gift cards have grown 15 percent to 35 percent annually, with 2003 sales estimated at $42 billion to $45 billion, according to a Bain & Co. study.
The success of the Gap's gift-card program in 1998 inspired other retailers to follow suit, Markey said. Gift cards now constitute 5 percent of retail sales at such stores as J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart, says investment bank Salomon Smith Barney.
Last Meals Fascination
Here is a story that is a little, maybe a lot, on the morbid side but it is interesting all the same.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says:
Public fascination with the custom of granting the condemned a last meal has increased so much that three of the 38 states with capital punishment -- Arizona, California and Texas -- feature prisoners' final meal menus on their websites.
The interest in last meals ranges from dark humor to sociological study. Mike Randleman, a California actor who operates a website named deadmaneating.com, said he has been accused of exploiting "a sick spectacle." But he shared an e-mail from one of his site's visitors that he thinks helps explain the macabre interest in last meals.
"I believe a man's last meal speaks volumes: Personal history, level of education, cultural and geographic background, economic history -- the list goes on and on. These 'last meal requests' serve as a valuable social document and I am glad you're archiving them. I think your site also manages to humanize the most hated segment of our society. A difficult if not impossible task."
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, story excerpts, and other materials from a variety of websites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed, and a link will be provided, whenever possible.
