New (Old) Marketing Strategy – Layaway
What’s old is new again!
It was in the late summer or early fall of 1976, I believe, that I last put something on “layaway”. I needed a new winter coat and the small shop I frequented had the perfect one – for over two hundred dollars. A fortune for me in those days!
Thanks to that option, I could put a deposit down and pay on a regular basis – every two weeks or once a month – until it was mine. I religiously made my payments and before the winter was over I was proud owner of a coat I wore for more than 10 years.
Funny thing – for some odd reason – not long ago, I asked the Nordstrom clerk if they had a layaway option. The answer was of course, a quick “Sorry. But you can put it on your Nordstrom card…”
Kmart and Sears have resurrected the practice. For a quick lesson (or refresher) on how it works, Kmart’s website gives you all the details:
Kmart Layaway – Pay for your items over an 8-week period.
- Select your items.
- Bring them to the layaway counter and make a down payment.
- Make your payments every two weeks at your Kmart store.
- Take home your items once your payments have been completed.
Note: Sears does it a little differently; you have until Dec. 23, 2008 to make your final payment.
Yep, that’s the way I remember it. Though I believe the time line could expand depending on the value of the item being purchased. And some wanted each payment to be half of the balance due; a process that would result in never actually owning the item, if Zeno’s Paradox* is applied.
What other marketing “oldies” are out there for resurrection? As we look at approaching our purchases with a more frugal mind, it’s time to dig into the past and see how our parents and grandparents did it.
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*Zeno’s Paradox: when moving from one point to another, you never really reach your ultimate destination because you are dividing the remaining distance with every movement. If you divide the distance between point a and point b in half with every step, theoretically, you could never reach point b.
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Do you remember “green stamps”? It was an old customer loyalty/rewards program where you got stamps in exchange for your purcases and could accumulate them to receive “free” merchandise with them from a small catalog. As it is harder for businesses to get new customers I am seeing more interest in retention and loyalty programs. This could certainly be updated and applied to many different types of business. I’m not sure, but I think the only ones doing “customer rewards” programs are the grocery stores and some food places (Subway). Maybe an opportunity?