Melinda Warner stacks toys that she and her husband David picked out at K-Mart on the stores layaway counter as K-Mart employee Suzie Burkheimer looks on at the Janesville K-Mart store.
JANESVILLE — Years ago, Melinda Warner put items on layaway all the time.
So when she saw commercials advertising Kmart’s layaway program this year, she thought it was a good idea.
The Darien woman shops at Kmart, 2233 Humes Road, Janesville, specifically because it has layaway, she said.
“You can pay on it every week,” she said Thursday as she loaded a cart full of toys for her son and grandsons onto the layaway counter. “Storage is nice; you don’t have to hide everything.”
Layaway, which allows customers to set purchases aside until they are paid in full, became popular during the Great Depression but waned in recent decades as credit card use increased, according to an October Wall Street Journal article. Wal-Mart phased out layaway in 2006, citing declining use and increasing costs.
But as the economy shrinks and credit tightens, layaway appears to be gaining in popularity in stores that still offer it.
The local Kmart store has seen its layaway orders double so far this holiday shopping season over last year, said Jerry St. Marie, store manager. He’s seen lines stretching down the aisle at times for people waiting to put things on layaway, especially on weekends, he said.
The chain has emphasized its layaway program in its holiday advertising campaign. Sears, whose parent company also owns Kmart, is offering layaway this holiday season for the first time in years, St. Marie said.
Other chains offering layaway include TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Burlington Coat Factory, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Companies’ layaway policies vary. Kmart requires customers to pay a $5 layaway fee and put down 10 percent of the total cost or $10, whichever is greater. Customers pay 25 percent of the balance every two weeks for eight weeks.
Cheryl Collins, Beloit, thinks the fee is worth it. She has put clothes and gifts for her grandchildren on layaway at Kmart this year, she said.
“Sometimes you just don’t always have the money to pay for something outright,” she said.
Several independent Janesville stores never stopped offering layaway. It is especially popular for big-ticket items such as furniture, bicycles and jewelry.
A small percentage of customers use layaway at Bay Design Custom Jewelers, 1727 Newport Ave., Janesville, co-owner Alician Pearce said. But she has noticed that number increase in recent months, she said.
“We have seen more layaways, just because, like everything else, everything’s going up in price,” she said.
But Donna Acheson, manager of Dubes Jewelry, 21 W. Milwaukee St., Janesville, hasn’t noticed an increase in layaways because the program always has been popular there, she said. Layaway helps customers budget and keeps gifts out of the house, she said.
“The guys who shop in August for Christmas, they don’t want it laying around the house for somebody to find,” she said.