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The Layaway Wars

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We’re approaching the end of September and it’s time to start thinking about the Holiday Season that seems to become earlier and earlier in the year.  Yes the kids just went back to school.  And yes today is the official first day of Fall.  But in the retail world, the gloves are coming off in the Layaway Wars!  And that’s to be used to the consumers advantage.

Let’s dive right in starting with Walmart.  Walmart seems to be coming out in the lead with a few key changes that will help the shopper out.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had a crystal ball and could base our decisions off of that?  I’m sure Walmart does too, because how were they to know that in 2006 when they did away with their Layaway program that it wouldn’t work out?  You see, this was ahead of the recession and most of American consumers were leveraging everything on credit cards.  Walmart felt it was a smart decision.  I personally thought it wasn’t good, but I’m not the CEO now am I? lol Enough of my thoughts and onto to the facts:

Aside from what you see pictured, a few extra details:
~ Final pickup is 12/14/12
~ payments can only be made in store
~ this year they extended the payback period from 60 to 90 days
 
 
Let’s move on to Kmart.  Now Kmart to me is a consistent winner when it comes to their Layaway program.  For starters they offer layaway all year long.  Perfect for families and I know we’ve taken advantage of their layaway for years, not only for Christmas but also when we were preparing for baby.  Here’s the basics:
 
~ 8 week plan: $5 service fee // 4 bi-weekly payments
~ 12 week plan:  $10 service fee // 6 bi-weekly pymts * on purchases $300+
~ down pymt is $15 or 10% whichever is greater
~ payments can be made online & in-store
~ layaway can be initiated online & in-store
~ Free Layaway Promotion ~ service fee is waived on contracts initiated between 9/9/12 –   
11/17/12
~ visit the site for more info and they have a payment calculator to help you budget.

 

source

**Sears is family with Kmart and they offer a similar layaway plan.  Visit Kmart.com for more details. The site was giving me errors so I really couldn’t get all the info I was looking for, but it appears to be very similar but their higher option starts with purchases $400+.

 
 
Now on to Toy’s R Us.  Toy’s R Us has been offering layaway for a few years now and each year they seem to offer a tad bit more.  I don’t blame them.  They’ve really had to keep in the fight against other stores like Walmart as well as all of the online competition.  I had to scour the web to find out some solid facts on this year’s layaway options.  Their site just gives very generic information and encourages you to go to the store for details.
 
Well, Toy’s R Us is across town and I for one don’t have the gas to waste just to go get more information.  So after some research I found a press release directly from the company giving me the extra info I was looking for.  Now I will share with you!
 
~ available on the majority of items excluding, apparel, diapers, formula, holiday items, etc (visit the site)
~ layaway is available year around but for Holiday layaway if order is opened before 10/31/12 the $5 service fee is waived.
~ 20% down payment
~ Payments may be made at any time at the store where the order was placed in the form of cash, check, credit card, debit card or gift card.

~ 50% of the total price of the order must be paid within 45 days and the order must be paid in full and picked up by December 16. 

That’s the roundup of the big box stores for layaway.  If only Target would get in on the game, it would be amazing but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.  With the financial times as they are, retailers are doing whatever they can to get you to spend the money you do have.  Why not take advantage of getting items you know are on the top of  your family’s wishlists and pay it over time?  
 
Last year I gambled and did ok but this time around I’m going to stick with layaway.  I have too much planned and too much going on to really take the chance this year.  I would  prefer to have the less stress that comes with knowing I already got it handled.  I already know one thing on the list, and it’s a gift to me from me, and that’s the new Ipod Nano!  Now it’s time to devise the master plan and start to put things on layaway at the different stores.
 
  
Will you be taking advantage of any of the listed layaway options this holiday season?
 

 

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    1. Dom over at Belleau Kitchen has been hosting a fab monthly bloggers challenge for quite some time now. Through his Random Recipes challenge he has asked us to share all sorts of weird and wonderful things from getting us to open our cookery books at random pages and cooking what’s on that page (no cheating!), to baking with a random ingredient or theme, to photographing and sharing our cookbook collection.

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