Layaway terms per store
Store % down service fee cancellation fee time frame
Sears $15 or 10% $5 for each item $10 8 weeks
Kmart $15 or 10% $5 for each item N/A 8 weeks
Toys R Us 20% $10 $5 5 weeks*
Burlington Coat Factory 20% $5 $5 8 weeks**
TJ Maxx 10% $5 none 30 days
Marshalls 10% $5 none 30 days
* Items must be paid for in full by Dec. 6 to ensure that the gift is available for pickup before Christmas.
** Additional restrictions apply, see store for more details.
The recession has brought back many shopping strategies that had been largely discarded in the more free-wheeling spending days of the 1990s.
More people these days are utilizing vegetable gardens, streamlining their transportation needs, cooking at home instead of going out to eat, using coupons, separating wants from needs, and so on.
Another somewhat old-fashioned way of shopping that is making a comeback of late is layaway, a service which allows customers to have a store put items aside and pay in monthly increments.
The benefits of using layaway include securing an item or items, avoiding the interest charges that would come along with making the same purchase on a credit card, and keeping the gift well out of reach from its eventual recipient.
Sears brought back its layaway program last Christmas season, bringing it in line with the program offered by its sister company, Kmart.
The stores then started offering online layaway this fall.
Features of the online programs include a layaway calculator, product availability information and reminder e-mails.
Also in October, Toys R Us announced that it and Babies R Us were offering a “Big Gift” layaway for its big-ticket items, including bikes, ride-on vehicles, outdoor play equipment, TVs, doll houses, car seats and cribs.
Other stores in the layaway game include Marshalls, TJ Maxx and Burlington Coat Factory.
All of these stores require a certain percentage down, a service charge and a specific time frame for you to pay off your purchase. Some stores incur additional cancellation fees.
There also are online layaway programs, including HSN.com (Home Shopping Network), elayaway.com, LayAwayTravel.com and lay-away.com.
Of note as well, on the anti-trend end, is that Walmart used to have a comprehensive layaway program, but discontinued it in 2006.
They do continue to offer it for jewelry.
Christmas shopping season has arrived
Take a look at the advertisements inside today’s newspaper.
With themes like “Home for the Holidays,” “Tis the Season for Unbeatable Prices” and “Gift Sale,” it appears that retailers believe the holiday shopping season has begun.
And, with some of the sizable sales the stores are offering, I am willing to go along with that idea.
Here are some of the best deals this week.
Toys, bikes, games
For many families, children benefit from the bulk of holiday spending. I know my kids receive at least four times what my husband and I do.
Fortunately for us shoppers, many stores are drastically cutting their toy and game prices to get our business this season.
Walmart has its most popular toys for between $10 and $49 this week, including board games and bikes, and Target's popular toys start at $8.
Target also has a deal in which you buy two Wii games and get a third for free. That can be a $50 savings.
Meijer has bikes for $49.99 to $89.99, and Webkinz for $9.99 for the next two weeks. Anytime you can get a Webkinz for less than $10, that is a good deal.
Tuesday Morning, which has four local stores, has toy savings of up to 83 percent off. Those sales include kids' play tents for as low as $19.99 (regularly $45 to $50) and a Kidcraft Train Table, which is originally $149.99, for $69.95.
Toys R Us has its glossy "Biggest Big Book Ever" of toys available now, with up to $5,500 in savings.
Of course, Toys R Us had a little more room for that amount of savings than some others, but it does have some particularly good deals this week.
Throughout the book, there are multiple free toys with the purchase of related ones — like free Nerf ammo (up to a $5.99 value) with any Nerf blaster, and a free Fisher-Price shopping cart (worth $21.99) with the purchase of a Fisher-Price Grow-with-me kitchen for $74.99.
Toys R Us also has a very cool deal in which you can get a free “exclusive Family Game Night trophy” (valued at $9.99, and looks like the guy on Monopoly cards) with the purchase of one of the many family board games being sold for $12.99. The finer print adds that the games also can yield a $3 mail-in rebate.
It also has 25 percent off all Schwinn bikes, trailers and helmets.
All stores should have the Wii video game system for the discounted $199.99, since that is the price set by Nintendo.
Electronics
Best Buy
has an aptly named “Hot Deal of the Week,” selling its Panasonic 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $999.99, for a savings of $400.
Sears
has the same TV on sale — for $50 more.
Office Depot is keying in on the Windows 7 launch, offering multiple deals concerning the new PC software and more than $1,400 savings throughout the store.
Office Depot adds that “nobody beats our holiday prices,” promising to honor its price-match guarantee.
Home fashions
JCPenney
has up to 50 percent off most things for the home, including sheets, comforters, rugs and cookware. It also exceeds that half-off discount with its Cooks 18-piece Hard Anodized Cookware Set, originally $499.99, for $199.99.
Sears also has home fashions on sale for 30 percent to 50 percent off this week.
And Target has bath towels for $4.50, beating Walmart's price of $5.
Clothing
Children's jeans are $7 at Target and $9 to $13 at Walmart. Where Walmart makes up some ground in this bargain battle is that it also is charging that same $9 to $13 for adults' jeans.
Target jeans for adults are closer to $20.
Target also has slippers for $6, boys’ track pants for $6, infant and toddlers’ fleece hoodies and pants for $6, and bras and women’s boxers for $7.
Kmart has all of its outerwear for the family marked down 40 percent, and Sears has 50 percent off all men's apparel and women's "hottest styles."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7325 or jikelley@Dayton DailyNews.com.
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