Holiday Best: layaway can aid in buying gifts
Kelle Barr | MLive.com | Friday November 13th, 2009
KALAMAZOO — The layaway programs that were popular decades ago have resurfaced at local retailers.
Terms vary, but most include:- A small fee to establish a layaway contract.
- A required schedule of payments during the contract.
- A fee to cancel the contract.
- Be sure to ask whether some items are ineligible for layaway. Sometimes excluded are personal computers, cell phones, live plants, perishable items, alcohol and tobacco products, clearance merchandise and Black Friday holiday specials.
A new element is e-layaway. Customers don’t even have to enter a store to take advantage. Some retailers allow customers instead to select items on their Web sites, make down payments and scheduled payments online and pick up the items once they’re paid for at a store nearby. How handy is that?
Among larger stores with layaway programs are Sears, TJ Maxx, Burlington Coat Factory, Toys “R” Us, Babies “R” Us and Kmart.
Kmart’s parent company, Sears Holdings Corp., plans to close the Kalamazoo and Portage Kmart stores in February, so those two stores not opening new layaway accounts. But layaway contracts are available at Kmart stores in Battle Creek and Marshall and online at www.kmart.com.
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