2007-03-12 04:34:13 · 9 answers · asked by Jenny M 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Other - Business & Finance
It sucks but I think they did it for purely business/profit reasons. Think about it, you can go to the store find something you want to buy, put a small amount of money down and the store will 'hold' the item for you until you pay it off. Sounds great, no? You get a great deal and the store makes a sale that it otherwise might not have made.
However, after a few weeks/months, if you decide not to buy the item in question they must refund all your money (sometimes minus a small re-stocking fee). Now the store must attempt to sell the item once again, but there's always the chance that it's now an "off season" item so will have to be reduced in price in order to make it sell. That coupled with the wages paid to those who worked in lay-away, the storage issues, etc. made the whole process a losing proposition for the stores.
Bottom line in retail, if it's not making you a significant amount of money it's not worth it.
2007-03-12 04:48:15 · answer #1 · answered by RMarcin 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
An overwhelming number of shoppers were placing items in layaway paying the low initial payment, then never paying any further on the item. The items would sit in their layaway for several months with no further payment being made. It was so bad they had to discontinue the practice because they had so much merchandise in layaway storage that they could have sold easily if it was left out on the sales floor. Its simply a common sense business judgment, nothing more.
2007-03-12 04:44:53 · answer #2 · answered by Sane 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Storage space is a real cost. So is the manpower needed to transfer that merchandise to and from general inventory. Without actually charging extra fees for layaway on a timed basis they can't or don't want to justify setting aside the space for this merchandise when it could be used to hold "moving inventory". It's purely a cost/profit call.
2007-03-12 04:46:38 · answer #3 · answered by Ricky J. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because walmart is a monster. walmart will force small businesses to close and large corporations to lay off workers. consumers do not realize yet that by buying walmart's cheap baby supplies and totalities from walmart just causes extra spillover effects that they pay in other forms like taxes. i refuse to shop there.
2007-03-12 04:56:38 · answer #4 · answered by Amy T 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They say that it took so much storage space. I also think why do layway when you have plenty of customers who will just buy the items. That way Wal-Mart gets the money up front and doesn't have to wait months for people to pay .
2007-03-12 04:42:25 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Lay-Away is the same thing as credit. Why GIVE them credit with no interest when they can have a WalMart credit card and earn interest on items purchased?
2007-03-12 04:42:11 · answer #6 · answered by rock d 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
majority of illegal and legal immigrants from Mexico shop at Wal-mart. I've heard rumors that they didn't pay the funds back and escaped doing it.
2007-03-12 04:39:15 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
They claim storage/logistics, but I think it was aimed at lower-income customers.
2007-03-12 04:38:23 · answer #8 · answered by J W 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
good question.
2007-03-12 04:41:24 · answer #9 · answered by bearcatz_07 4 · 0⤊ 3⤋