Layaways becoming a thing of the past

By Denice Thibodeau

Published: August 23, 2008

Editor’s note Staff writer Denice Thibodeau talked to local store owners recently to find out why many stores have eliminated their
layaway plans.

Some of my earliest memories include shopping. My mother would bundle up her three kids; load up the baby carriage with the baby, diaper bag, handbag, snacks and other paraphernalia; and then, with the 2-year-old hanging on to one side of the carriage and the 4-year-old the other, walk to the shopping center about a mile up the road every Friday.

Sometimes we brought things back, but I don’t remember ever seeing her at the regular checkouts — she bought just about everything on the layaway plan.

With three preschoolers to clothe, she always had at least one layaway going. In the months leading up to Christmas, we hiked into several stores every week, where she made carefully planned payments that would release her purchases just in time for the big day.

Layaways served me well throughout my teen years, too. Financially, I took after my father (spend it when you have it) rather than after my mother, the saver and budgeter who could always come up with a few dollars for emergencies.

Once I had something on layaway, though, I would faithfully make payments from my baby-sitting money before it disappeared on records, magazines and other fun stuff.

My clothing choices tended to be made very carefully — it was hard to be up-to-the-minute in the ever-changing fashion world when it could take months to get my purchase home, but I was always pretty well dressed.

But layaways seem to be going the way of the dinosaur at department stores these days. A search of Danville’s bigger stores only found two — Kmart and Goody’s — that still offer them.

Creed Williams, the store manager at Goody’s in Riverside Shopping Center, said the store offers a 30-day layaway with a 10-percent deposit.

“It’s still a very popular service,” Williams said.

At Kmart on Riverside Drive, assistant manager Sherry Byrd said a two-month layaway can be made with a 10-percent deposit. She also said payments on the layaway must be made at least every two weeks.

There is a $5 layaway fee and a $10 cancellation fee if the customer changes their mind about their purchase.

Kmart’s acting store manager, Jackie Younger, said she appreciates her layaway customers.

“They’re good customers, and layaways are how they survive,” Younger said. “It’s how they get what they want.”

Debbie Custer, an assistant store manager, said Christmas is still the busiest time for the store.

“It’s still very popular, and at Christmas it’s off the hook,” she said. “We have to open three new areas to keep (layaways) in.”

Sears only offers layaway for jewelry and promotional items, according to Kim Freeley, a media spokesperson at the store’s corporate offices.

Freeley said jewelry purchases of $50 or more can be put on layaway with a $25 deposit for up to 90 days.

Shane Markham, the manager of Belk at Piedmont Mall, said the store hasn’t offered layaways since the late 1990s.

He said the store decided not to provide the service anymore as a way to cut overhead.

“It was a way to go leaner,” Markham said, adding that there isn’t a separate customer service office anymore either, which is where layaways used to be handled.

Even Wal-Mart has done away with layaways. The final season for layaways there was 2006.

Wal-Mart officials cited declining popularity and increasing costs as the reasons for cutting the service.

“Demand for layaway services has declined steadily as consumers turn to other options, such as online shopping, gift cards and no-cost credit alternatives,” read a Sept. 14, 2006, company news release.

My mother thwarted snoopy children by never having a gift in the house until the last possible moment — for her layaway was not just about financing, but also about birthday and Christmas surprise security.

What I want to know is, without layaways, where do parents hide their Christmas presents now?

Contact Denice Thibodeau at or (434) 791-7985.