Witch Willows WanderingsWalmart Loses Their Sanity
November 20th 2006 20:30
Walmart Brings Back Christmas, then Loses More to No Layaway.
Will Walmart End Up Here?
So, I'm sure you all have heard about Walmart getting rid of their layaway program due to lack of interest and too much cost to them. Well apparently they haven't taken into consideration the backlash that will come with this. They may be safe this year since it will be running through the beginning of December, but after that what will happen?
They either have people informing them of what to do with their company based solely on their own opinions or they all have hit their heads! The fact is that a lot of Walmart shoppers are middle to lower income and a lot of them have families! Apparently the geniuses at Walmart didn't take into consideration not only how difficult it can be to save money for Christmas, BUT how many people actually use the service to "hide" presents or to hold them for later pick-up when it is convenient for the customer!
I have personally used the layaway plan only 3 times in my life, and 2 of the 3 times was within the last 6 months. Why? Because I have 2 little boys and am a stay at home mom, so it's hard to get out without them and buy Christmas presents that they will not see until "Santa" delivers them. It just made it more convenient for me to be able to keep it at the store until my husband can pick it up and I can distract the kiddies or have them nap during the delivery. The other time I used it to buy a large object that was on sale and they had limited amounts. I didn't have a truck that day to haul it home, so I placed it in layaway until the weekend when my father-in-law could go and pick it up for me by using his truck. Yet again, another case of convenience.
But I don't think that the Walmart "people" actually considered things such as that. I'm not sure if they were only thinking that poor people use it as a way to buy presents at any point in the year or what, but they are going to lose out because of it. Their whole deal was that it costs them too much money to keep it going and keep the space to store the items. After all of these years they suddenly don't have enough space? They also had said that it hurts them when people put something on layaway and then never come back to pay it off and pick it up. So they are stuck putting the item back out, unless it is too old to sale I suppose. But if this were the case, then they should have changed the policy to say that what ever money you put down is lost if not paid on every 2 weeks and picked up with pay off within the month time frame they give you.
I know it's not a big deal, but there are a lot of moms and other people out there ticked off to hear this decision. I would think that after they botched Christmas last year with their "Happy Holidays" signage they would rethink any stupid moves in the future. I guess they didn't learn from past mistakes. Oh well. There are other companies that still do layaway, so not to worry. And I do most of my shopping at Target (which does not do layaway) anyway!
Oh yah, and Merry Christmas....no, Happy Holidays...errr....whatever.
Blessed Be
| 71 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Wendi
I've only used their lay away program about twice, and that was when my kids were a lot younger. Layaway is a good program for young teens, though, who have limited income or allowance and are learning the value of a dollar. It's a shame to see such a program disappear.
I'm sure by the time my kids are in their twenties, Layaway at any store will be a thing of the past. Nowadays, everything is bought on credit.
Comment by The Voices in my Head
The Voices in my Head
Voices~
Comment by Miss Faith
The Truth about non-Christian Religions
Who Pee'd in My Cauldron?
I also don't like the way Walmart treats their people, so I try not to go their unless I need to anyway.
But where my mother lives, it's only Walmart and K-Mart. And actually when Walmart came in, Krogers
grocery store went out of business, so now they only have the local grocery and Aldis.
So, I think Walmart make it virtually impossible for some areas and some people to NOT shop there. If
my mom doesn't shop at Walmart, she has to pay more for groceries at the local store, and for anything
else she would have to try K-Mart. Otherwise she would have to drive at least an hour away to get
to any other "big" store chain.
So I guess they know that whatever they do, there will still be communities that "need" to shop with them,
no matter what. And in my opinion, that sucks.
Faith
Comment by Wendi