Comments on: Kmart’s Economic Strategy — Layaway http://insidetheaisle.com/2008/10/kmarts-economic-strategy-layaway/ Purpose Driven Retail...Linking strategic retail design and the shopper mind. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:42:35 +0000 hourly 1 By: editor http://insidetheaisle.com/2008/10/kmarts-economic-strategy-layaway/comment-page-1/#comment-30 editor Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:08:38 +0000 http://insidetheaisle.com/?p=366#comment-30 Bill, You make some great points. But many of those "gotta have it NOW" shoppers don't have a choice. Because of the credit crunch many people are seeing their spending limits lowered at the descretion of the creditor. And without shoppers retailers are having to make the hard choices that you describe. Mary Pilon at WSJ thinks that layaway may be the "New Credit Card"...at least in the meantime. Check out what she has to say at the link below. http://blogs.wsj.com/wallet/2008/10/22/layaway-the-new-credit-card/trackback/ Bill,
You make some great points. But many of those “gotta have it NOW” shoppers don’t have a choice. Because of the credit crunch many people are seeing their spending limits lowered at the descretion of the creditor. And without shoppers retailers are having to make the hard choices that you describe.

Mary Pilon at WSJ thinks that layaway may be the “New Credit Card”…at least in the meantime. Check out what she has to say at the link below.

http://blogs.wsj.com/wallet/2008/10/22/layaway-the-new-credit-card/trackback/

]]> By: Bill http://insidetheaisle.com/2008/10/kmarts-economic-strategy-layaway/comment-page-1/#comment-29 Bill Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:56:47 +0000 http://insidetheaisle.com/?p=366#comment-29 Martin, I, too, am curious as to how brick & mortar retailers will bring in customers. Do I think the revival of the layway will do it? Hardly. There is a full generation (nay, two even) of retail shoppers that have not the faintest idea of this concept. In this day and age of "gotta have it NOW", access to credit cards and internet commerce, it's unlikely to have a significant impact. Additionally, would retailers willingly chew up valuable non-salesfloor square footage to store merchandise and subject themselves to the extra recordkeeping that involves layaway? Retailers are going to have to go further back to basics to get and retain their customers: CUSTOMER SERVICE. If shoppers won't get this then it won't matter how sexy the displays and pricing are in the stores. Martin,

I, too, am curious as to how brick & mortar retailers will bring in customers. Do I think the revival of the layway will do it? Hardly. There is a full generation (nay, two even) of retail shoppers that have not the faintest idea of this concept. In this day and age of “gotta have it NOW”, access to credit cards and internet commerce, it’s unlikely to have a significant impact. Additionally, would retailers willingly chew up valuable non-salesfloor square footage to store merchandise and subject themselves to the extra recordkeeping that involves layaway?

Retailers are going to have to go further back to basics to get and retain their customers: CUSTOMER SERVICE. If shoppers won’t get this then it won’t matter how sexy the displays and pricing are in the stores.

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