Wal-Mart Ending Its Layaway Program

[33girl]

A lot of people put things on layaway because:

1) If you wait for it to get reduced it ends up being gone and your daughter throws a fit because she didn't get the Bratz Lil' Hobags Playhouse;

2) People receive Christmas bonuses.

This is an extremely bad PR move for Walmart. They've got enough money to pay the staff and deal with the storage issues. This is going to make them look like they don't care about the people who use layaway.

[AlphaFrog]

I know a huge portion of that is what Walmart calls "Blitz Day" - which is the day after Thanksgiving, where you can get 1000" Plasma TV for 69.95, and so people load up on deals at 4:30am and put them all on layaway so they'll still be there when they actually have the $$ for them.

Oh, and I just thought of another one: I put a crib on layaway because it was the last one they had, and it wouldn't fit into my Chevy Aveo...so I put it on layaway, and paid for 90% of it, and my dad came back the next day with his truck and picked it up. Not a compelling reason to keep Layaway alive, but a semi-amusing story.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by 33girl

A lot of people put things on layaway because:

1) If you wait for it to get reduced it ends up being gone and your daughter throws a fit because she didn't get the Bratz Lil' Hobags Playhouse;

2) People receive Christmas bonuses.

This is an extremely bad PR move for Walmart. They've got enough money to pay the staff and deal with the storage issues. This is going to make them look like they don't care about the people who use layaway.

It may be a bad PR move for Walmart, but it's probably a ridiculously good business move - shifting all of these transactions to some sort of 'zero-interest/6 mo' deal on a Walmart CC will keep the same low-end buyers, eliminate overhead and allow the low-end buyer to hang themselves over the altar of bad spending habits when they inevitably run through the no-interest period.

It's exactly the same deal that turned Capital One into a juggernaut - there's no reason for Walmart not to utilize the same model, they certainly have the ability.

[jhujenn]

K-Mart still has layaway kids, so things may start to look up for them at least around here.

[Kevin]

K-Mart left my state.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Kevin

K-Mart left my state.

Seriously? They conciously left the state (i.e. they said "we will no longer do business in Oklahoma") or they just closed all the stores?

I know that sounds like nit-picking, but I just had a similar discussion about Burger King in Pittsburgh - some people think they left the market when actually I guess the local franchisor is in some sort of contract dispute. They're in some of the outlying suburbs.

Then again don't you have that Butt store down your way?

[valkyrie]

I don't shop at Walmart or use layaway (I had no idea this still existed anywhere) so I don't give a crap.

I really don't get the "snoopy kids" thing. If your kids can't behave themselves and just have to snoop, it's their own damn fault for ruining their surprise at Christmas. Maybe it would be a good learning experience.

Also, Walmart is never the only place to shop, unless you live in some remote tundra lean-to where there is no mail/UPS delivery. INTERNET.

[blueangel]

Originally Posted by valkyrie

I don't shop at Walmart or use layaway (I had no idea this still existed anywhere) so I don't give a crap.

I really don't get the "snoopy kids" thing. If your kids can't behave themselves and just have to snoop, it's their own damn fault for ruining their surprise at Christmas. Maybe it would be a good learning experience.

Also, Walmart is never the only place to shop, unless you live in some remote tundra lean-to where there is no mail/UPS delivery. INTERNET.

I agree with most of what you said, but I do want to point out that its difficult to shop on the internet without a credit card. There are some people who are unable to secure one.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Seriously? They conciously left the state (i.e. they said "we will no longer do business in Oklahoma") or they just closed all the stores?

I know that sounds like nit-picking, but I just had a similar discussion about Burger King in Pittsburgh - some people think they left the market when actually I guess the local franchisor is in some sort of contract dispute. They're in some of the outlying suburbs.

Then again don't you have that Butt store down your way?

When they downsized during the bankruptcy, they closed down a lot of stores which may not have been doing very well. It turned out that for some reason, that included nearly all of their stores in Oklahoma. I have heard rumors that we have a K-Mart out in Shawnee (if you know where that is) which is about 45 minutes East of Oklahoma City -- I'm pretty sure that's false though.

It could be that Wal-Mart is so popular here and K-Mart didn't like the competition (Oklahoma is a test bed for new Wal-Mart store concepts, I've heard they plan on opening 30 supercenters in the OKC metro area). I'm not sure how likely that is though. Target came behind K-Mart and opened locations near or at wherever K-Marts were located.

[kstar]

Originally Posted by Kevin

When they downsized during the bankruptcy, they closed down a lot of stores which may not have been doing very well. It turned out that for some reason, that included nearly all of their stores in Oklahoma. I have heard rumors that we have a K-Mart out in Shawnee (if you know where that is) which is about 45 minutes East of Oklahoma City -- I'm pretty sure that's false though.

It could be that Wal-Mart is so popular here and K-Mart didn't like the competition (Oklahoma is a test bed for new Wal-Mart store concepts, I've heard they plan on opening 30 supercenters in the OKC metro area). I'm not sure how likely that is though. Target came behind K-Mart and opened locations near or at wherever K-Marts were located.

There is a K-Mart in Shawnee, which is only 20 minutes out I-40, or you can go to Tulsa.

NO more Walmarts in the Metro! They're ugly! Oh well, I haven't set foot in a Walmart in about 2 years now. I guess I don't really have a say other than I voted with my money.