Say It Ain’t So: No More Layaway at Maine Walmart Locations

Have you used layaway for your holiday shopping? Well, Walmart in Maine is doing away with it.

According to the sunjournal.com, the layaway program that traditionally was offered from August 28 through December 14 was a way for shoppers to get their holiday shopping done while making regular payments, but it is now being done away with.

Casey Staheli, who is senior manager of national media relations for Walmart tells the sunjournal.com, “Layaway has been a declining option for the past few years with our customers.

Stores continuing layaway (in 2020) were selected based on usage of the program over the past few years, the newspaper reported. Layaway has been traditionally used by customers to pay off items over time without incurring interest charges or adhering to strict due dates.

As an alternative to layaway, Staheli has said the company will be offering the use of the Walmart Rewards credit card in addition to the Affirm program where customers can purchase items online and make fixed monthly payments, according to the Sun Journal.

Just seems like Walmart makes more money on interest charges and that the layaway program just wasn’t pulling in enough money for the company. I think it's sad.  I started my family when my wife and I were young before we were considered ‘creditworthy’ and used layaway to get the kids Christmas gifts.  It was a great way to train us to become ‘creditworthy’ and we weren’t incurring interest charges.   With the economy being tough this year and so many unemployed, it seems a shame to take away layaway at this point.

Just another thing we lost in 2020.