I recently read an article about how the last decade has made many of the 1980s’ most popular objects obsolete. The author cited rolodexes, Polaroid photos and foldable road maps as things that were once ubiquitous and are now nearly nonexistent because of changes in technology and habits.
But there’s one thing that was popular in the ’80s that has had a recent resurgence: layaway.
For the first time in more than a decade, layaway signs graced the windows of many retailers this holiday shopping season. I noticed them on an Olympia Sports store in New Hampshire while I was visiting my family over the holidays, and many other large retailers, like Kmart, Sears and T.J. Maxx have gotten into the layaway game as well.
With the rise of credit cards and credit limits, layaway went the way of cassette tapes and floppy disks. But now, with many people on tighter budgets and with lower credit limits, the practice has had something of a resurgence.
Layaway brought in 600,000 new customers to Kmart in 2008, said spokesperson Shannelle Armstrong. And the company expects that the 2009 holiday shopping season will have brought even more as consumers exercise caution while the economy recovers.
But this time, layaway is not limited to bricks-and-mortar stores, as many retailers have introduced online layaway, which was a popular option among many holiday shoppers who have been squeezed by the credit crunch.
K-Mart reports the word “layaway” had more than double the interest among U.S. Web searchers in August of this year that it had in the same month one year earlier.
I take this change in shopping habits as a positive sign that people have learned some valuable lessons from the recession. Instead of rushing out to buy everything on credit the minute it arrives on the scene, consumers are weighing their desire for new stuff and purchasing what they want slowly.
It makes sense that after years of living on credit and not saving a dime, many American consumers would stop, take stock of things and realize that such a lifestyle can’t be sustained indefinitely.
Delaying gratification is not something Americans are known for, but it may be in the future as more shoppers choose layaway or other similar payment methods when purchasing big-ticket items.
As painful as the recession was for many, I hope the lessons learned do not fade too quickly from our memories. In fact, that’s one of my resolutions for 2010, to reflect more on what has happened and not make the same mistakes twice.