Interesting. I remember the layaway desks in all the department stores my parents took my to as a kid in the 70s and early 80s.

Aside from simply purchasing things with credit cards, as the article notes, the other concept, similar to layaway, is the "no interest and no payments for x months". Take the item home, send in monthly payments pro-rated to pay the bill off before the end of the term.

It's how I bought my digital camera a few years ago.

An unspoken truth behind the current financial crisis is that many American's 'lifestyle bubble' is financed by credit, ergo, in order to keep the bubble economy going, more credit needs to be given to consumers to keep spending.

It is a scam because real wages have not gone up in this country in 35 years, so this is just another can that gets kicked down the road, with many consumers following Dick Cheney's advice that 'debt doesn't matter.' Really?

Consumer credit can't loosen up when people are maxed out. Everyone's maxed out. VISA and Mastercard and AmEx just killed the American Cunsumer. The engine that drove our economy.

"Non-credit purchasing" is back to stay I think. To me, what would be better is smaller (non-electronic), cheaper (under $30), non-Chinese plastic toys for Christmas. Maybe we can ween off the garbage products now too.

PS - I've been thinking alot lately about the CC company advocates who say "Well, you were stupid enough to get into Credit Card Debt." Well, that's like saying "You were stupid enough to do business with us." Let's totally boycott these bloodsuckers that6 just broke the US economy.

PPS - Sorry if this is a little disjointed...

Geez, I thought I was so smart when I said to myself, upon hearing the K-Mart ad, "Hey, that's when this crazy credit card thing started!" Truthfully, I didn't exactly realize it was gone -it sorted of silently faded away and I just forgot about it.

I think some of you commentors might be really young. I always say electronics are obsolete by the time you get everything installed, but it's not quite true. I go to to Sam's just for Rx's, and I amuse myself in electronics while I wait; they don't change that fast.

Plus, retailers have created an urgency. They could remarket things. OMG - I am feeling like the old fogey (I even said fogey!) but I make a respectable point. People used to have employer assisted "Christmas Clubs". You had something taken out of each paycheck all year, and you cashed them in in Sept/Oct and you would do your Christmas shopping ; what you didn't have enough money for you put a down payment on and put on layaway. (I'm explaining this because my 24 year old asked, "What's layaway?)

No retailer would have been idiotic enough to release something after September. Actually, with non-game system electronics, they want that stuff all bought before school starts as it is now.

And someone's fashion comment was way off base. That stuff is about 6 months ahead of it's useful period. That winter coat isn't going out of style between September and Dec.

Actually, this might have been some type of sociological shift. This immediate gratification, the sense that you have to have it now, have it first, upgrade seem to have fostered the whole living above our means mentality that got us in trouble. We may have been lead to slaughter, but maybe Elm St. is more responsible for this mess than I would have thought.

Walmart eliminated layaway last year. There were several reason, among them the need to keep inventory tied up, the need to dedicate storage space to the items, and the chances that the people would not complete the purchase and demand their money back.

Perhaps it says something about the state of credit this season, or perhaps Kmart is just reacting to the lack of this option from Walmart and sees a niche.

On a different note, I went to the Doctor the other day and the form said: "If Insurance doesn't cover something, we will charge your Credit Card. Provide your CC info Here: ____."

I didn't sign it, and didn't provide any Debit Card info. F that. They can bill me and I'll fight to make sure the Insurer pays them. I'm not going to be out the money while the Insurer tries their stalling tactics.

Risk has completely been shifted to consumers unnecessarily/disproportionately. FIGHT IT!!

I think there may be a perverse phsychological effect here: layaway gets the person more or less committed to the purchase with the same kind of negligible initial outlay as a credit card. And when your credit cards are maxed out, that's important.

Meanwhile, it's important to recognize that there's another reason retailers like credit cards: even with the processing fees, it (at least according to figures distributed by the card industry) costs them way less than it does to accept, count, secure and transfer substantial amounts of cash. The typical number I used to see was seven percent. Even if the cost of handling cash is half that, it's substantial.

I wouldn't be surprised to see an expansion of "gift" and other loyalty-style cards, with discounts and other benefits, just because handling the transactions is so much easier for the retailers.

I realize the operative word is "long-term." If credit loosens up quickly, then cash-in-advance will be a temporary blip. And for retailers who can't survive the readjustment (and short-term loss of sales) from credit to cash, then the long-term readjustment doesn't mean much. But non-credit purchasing could be the wave of the future.

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