Walmart Ditches Layaway for Holiday Shopping

Have you read the latest news about Walmart? The big box retailer announced they are no longer offering layaway services. With the Holiday season quickly approaching, this is terrible news for people who buy ahead and take advantage of the helpful program. According to foxbusiness.com, Walmart will now be offering a financing option rather than the Walmart layaway service.

Red Alert, Red Alert!

Here is the problem for the consumer. Walmart layaway was a great option for customers with less than perfect or no credit history. This allowed a wide range of socioeconomic demographics to provide gifts for their children when otherwise it was going to be incredibly difficult, or in many cases, impossible.

Their Solution

The retail bohemoth has announced that they will offer the buy now, pay later option through a program called Affirm. This is a common option and program that several large cell phone retailers use to lessen the financial blow when you’re walking out with the newest iPhone.

Through Affirm, you can make a purchase immediately and then you have between 3 and 24 months to pay it off. Sounds pretty good right? That is until you have to apply and they run a credit check. That’s not so good for those with bad or no credit. If you have decent credit and do get approved you are looking at no less than 10% interest, and in some cases up to 30%! Ouch.

So if you are one of the many that have historically taken advantage of Walmart layaway, you now have fewer and fewer options when it comes to providing your family with gifts at the inflated prices of big box retailers like Walmart. Luckily, there is one option that stands out above the rest.

THE Solution

Your local pawnshop will more than likely offer layaway services for free! On top of that, there is not a better place to find a wide range of quality and unique merchandise than at the pawnshop. To put the icing on the cake, pawn shop prices are unbeatable, literally a fraction of the cost of the big boys.

Pawn shops serve as a financial institution and are regulated as such. The beauty of it is, each pawn shop owner has the ability to set their own layaway terms. Many offer 10% down to hold your purchase and will take 9 more payments either weekly, possibly even monthly depending on the purchase price. Others offer layaway for 25% down and three more payments of the balance. The real advantage to layaway at the pawn shop is, NO INTEREST! So rather than paying for the convenience of the service, you’re actually just paying for your purchase. You can’t beat that!

Let’s look at this topic from another angle. Your local pawnshop is a small business like any other. It produces jobs, pays taxes, brings in revenue etc. Big box retailers do the same thing but on a corporate scale felt most at the top. Small businesses drive local economies and that will never change. They will always be true community builders.

So while Walmarts move to ditch layaway will inevitably effect several families, there is another option. As a matter of fact there are over 13,000 other options across the United States. Sometimes it feels like we would be lost without Walmart. The truth is, we have been without them before, we can be without them again.

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