Wal-Mart Stores announced it was upgrading its holiday layaway program by starting it earlier, including more products, and stretching the payback period.
The discount giant brought back the program last year after a five-year hiatus. The service allows a customer to keep a product on hold at the store and pay for it over time.
Among the details of this year's layaway program:
- The service will be available from Sept. 16 through Dec. 14. Last year, it began on Oct. 17. (Shoppers who 'like' their local Walmart store on Facebook can start their layaway two days early on Sept. 14.)
- Buyers under the program will have 90 days to pay the balance instead of last year's 60-day time frame.
- A full refund of the layaway open fee ($15) is recouped on a Walmart gift card for customers who make their final payment. The open fee under last year's program was less, $5.00, but was not refundable.
- If the order is cancelled or not paid in full, no additional cancellation fee will be charged this year. Last year's program charged a cancellation fee of $10.00. In such cases this year, the full $15 open fee is not recouped.
The list of eligible categories available under the program has been expanded to include small home appliances and select sporting goods such as basketball goals, trampolines and large exercise equipment. As in 2011, customers can also use layaway for a broad selection of electronics, toys and jewelry.
To use the program, buyers must put down a $10 down payment or 10 percent of the item price. Individual items laid away must cost at least $15; the full purchase must come out to at least $50.
Layaway programs are designed to help shoppers with limited access to credit. The longer layaway plan comes after Walmart indicated on its second-quarter conference call that it saw more incidents of consumers living paycheck-to-paycheck during the latest quarter. In the past, Walmart has said about 85 percent of transactions in its stores are paid for with cash.
Only a few stores offer layaway programs. Sears and Toys "R" Us brought back layaway in recent years. Sears Holding's Kmart division has had layaway programs for decades. Best Buy, Gamestop and Marshalls are among some other chains with such programs.