Phil's Forum

He's opinionated, informative and sometimes funny. Read Phil's latest thoughts on toys, baby products and the city of Jackson.

Layaway

We never stopped doing layaway. Wal-Mart stopped, but we didn't. K-Mart stopped, but we didn't. Toys 'R Us never offered layaway.

But now layaway has become a big deal again. K-Mart has brought it back and is advertising it heavily.

For those of you who don't know what layaway is, here's a brief description. You pick out the items you want and pay a deposit to have us hold them for you. In most layaways you have a limited amount of time and must make regular payments during that time or you may have your layaway canceled.


Our policy is like that. We ask that you put down a 10% deposit (most places want 25 to 50%). We also ask that you make a payment of any amount once a month (most layaways want a payment every week, usually another 25%). We also give you 6 months to pay off the layaway and take everything home, 10 months if it is a baby product like a crib or dresser (most layaways are for 30 or 60 days). And if you cancel the entire layaway there is a $3 cancellation fee (most cancellation fees are the entire deposit). Otherwise, you get back what you paid.

It's really quite simple. And many of you might see the economics of how you can get all the toys you want for your children, friends and family and be able to spread the money out over a few weeks or months, rather than have to pay all at once.

Yes, layaways can be a big help for those trying to balance their budget and not have that big expense all at once.

It can also be a help for those who know they will have the money, but maybe not until the very end of the season when the best products might be sold out. Put it on layaway now and pay it off later.

But those are not the only advantages.

In fact, the main reason most of our customers do layaway is space. If you don't have a place to hide your toys from the kids, if they know where to look to get a sneak peak at Christmas, we can help.

We have a huge warehouse, much bigger than stores twice our size. And one special part of the warehouse is designated for holding layaways. You should see it around the second week of December - shelves and shelves of happiness and joy waiting to go to their homes.

Oh yeah, and the fact that we're open until 5pm Christmas Eve and we giftwrap for free certainly helps, too.

Just imagine doing all of your Christmas shopping on a quiet day in October or early November and not having to worry about the kids being snoops. Then, on the 24th of December you swoop in and pick up all your giftwrapped packages that you only have to hide for a few hours.

Sound enticing?

You can trust our layaway, too. We have a triple redundant system that seems like a a lot of work, but it's worth it. We DO NOT LOSE layaways.

If you think this might be a good way to go, ask one of the staff to help you. Or just bring all of your items up to the front registers and say, "I want to start a layaway."

Yes it's that simple. Just one more way we're here to make smile.

Happy Shopping!

Phil Wrzesinski