Strapped Shoppers Are Even Putting School Supplies on Layaway
Wow, that's pretty bad. I don't think I've even heard of this happening before. Pens and pencils?
NEW YORK - To gauge consumers' strain, look no further than the rows and rows of plastic bags awaiting layaway payments at Kmart. They are filled with back-to-school basics — not just T-shirts and jeans but notebooks, magic markers and pencils.
It is unheard of for layaway rooms to be so packed at back-to-school time and for the packages to include relatively cheap school supplies.
A record number of shoppers, shut off from credit and short on cash, are relying on Kmart's layaway program to pay for all of their kids' school needs, said Tom Aiello, a spokesman for Kmart's parent Sears Holdings Corp. Layaway allows shoppers to pay over time, interest- free, and pick up their merchandise when it's paid in full.
"It's a sight. In the past, we would see layaway start to pick up around Halloween" as people get a jump start for Christmas, said David Travis, manager of a Kmart store in Conover, N.C.
Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp. said its layaway business is stronger than a year ago. And e-Layaway.com, which offers online layaway services for about 1,000 merchants, has seen its business double from the same time last year. Customers are setting aside even $25 calculators and $30 backpacks.
The word "layaway" had more than double the interest among U.S. searchers in August 2009 than it had in August 2008, according to Google Insights for Search.
Obviously, these people are simply lazy. If they had more get up and go and picked themselves up by their own bootstraps -- like, for example, self-made men Jonah Goldberg and Bill Kristol did -- then they'd never have any money problems at all. There are plenty of good-paying jobs out there, for anyone who wants one... only laziness and stupidity could possibly account for all this economic hardship!
If there *are* any problems with the economy, however, I'm confident they can all be quickly resolved through a combination of tax cuts for the rich and for corporations as well as extensive deregulation to spur investment and innovation. Works every time!
Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to the auction. There's this Picasso I've had my eye on for months...
As long as the CEO's get theirs, there's nothing wrong with the economy. Poor and struggling people are poor and struggling because they deserve to be poor and struggling.
...could layaway somedat "stimulus money" towards some basic school supplies.
Obama could kick off a national program called
"no pencils left behind" or "#2's for everyone" or somethin'
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
> Maybe Obama could layaway somedat "stimulus money" towards some
> basic school supplies.
Maybe he could, but would he? Or perhaps the question should be:
Does Obama REALLY comprehend what's going on out there? Or does he have the intellect to grasp it? And DOES HE REALLY CARE??
I am 67, so all I know about the Hoover Depression and the FDR years is what I have read or what I have been told. But I am beginning to wonder exactly how bad the economic situation REALLY was last fall. Was it a miniature repeat of 1929 and 1930, or was it just a deep pothole on the economic highway?
I am really beginning to feel like I've been had. As I have read about FDR's "100 Days", I have begun to think that we have not elected a reincarnation of FDR by any stretch of the imagination.
In fact, Obama is beginning to come across, at least to The Thinker, as nothing but Republican Lite.
I own a small shop and I hate this idea! I have 4 things right now that are paid for partially. None are paid for enough to cover my cost of them.
This is just another way to hide the credit debt and make GW's "enterpreneurship" business owners carry more of the burden.
It does provide a more timely excuse for missing homework than "my dog ate it".
The Obama Healthcare Reform bill includes a section to put layaway shoppers to death.
Didn't you know that?
It's Wealthcare this country needs....we can't have rich people doing without. The non-rich can always be bled for just a few more trillions to keep the rich rich.
and the board of putting layaway shoppers to death won't be able to find you.
I need a dozen pencils. Can I give you $.05 a week for the next 39 weeks and then pick them up next summer?
No, it's not a worldwide depression. It's just a recession, and we've turned the corner! Only 371,000 jobs were lost last month.
I always though layaway was an excellent service. I did it a lot myself for my daughters back to school clothing and lots of other stuff back in the day. It is a way to pay for stuff you need over time, without debt, without making credit card companies rich, or being screwed over by credit card companies. I'm all for it.
When credit became so easy to get is when the system started to go so wrong. Credit companies hate layaway, therefor I love it.
a sure-fire way to fix this mess and to get the american taxpayer on surer economic footing is for the crack obama economic squad to gift more money to goldman sachs, citi, boa, etc.
this is america, and the health of the economy is ONLY measured through the stock market. and in america if the rich and powerful are in need it is up to the "people" (see, consumers) to satisfy those needs.
*cough*
I think "goldman sachs, citi, boa, and the rest of all the welfare seeking financial institutions" ...should be forced by the Obama administration to put the next bailout that they ask for...
...on layaway.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
the banks "forced by the Obama administration", hee hee, "they ask for", funny
:)
Goldman Sachs, Citi, BOA, ...and the Obama administration,
should be forced by We The People,
to put any money "they demand from the Federal Reserve" (or from taxpayers)
...on layaway.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
More TRICKLE DOWN economics!
Reaganomis and urinary functions are very similar, thus their "piss poor" performance (pun intended).
Brother can you spare a dime…
Helicopter Ben will be flying over anytime now with another bundle of cash…
There is another bubble a-brewing…
Whoaaa… a lay-away bubble…
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I don't have sympathy for people who have cell phones, which I'm betting are a priority to most of the shoppers who put school supplies on layaway.
Some jewelry stores also provide lay away services for customers.
Most Stores with layaway plans have time limits of 6 months or less. If the purchase is not paid off in time; the shopper forfeits any money paid on the items and they are returned to stock to be resold.
It's not the customer who gets all the benefits.
Donaldd
is so monumentally easy... yet it affects the interests of the top 5% of this population (if that). And that means it will never come to pass.
It is time to evolve, capitalism has run its course. And we're literally committing suicide by placebo. It is funny how both the USSR and the current capitalist system, both ended up developing into two systems only concerned with perpetuating themselves.
Dimitri Orlov with Max Keiser: The Collapse Gap here
The essay, Closing the collapse gap here
Club Orlov: You don't have to go to school here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
... however the collapse of the USSR was not "smooth" at all. There was plenty of homelessness and famine (and in some cases there still is). For a while Russia had one of the lowest life expectancies among males in the "industrialized" world.
Russia is a mafiatocracy.
But, we're a white collar mafiatocracy now...
Hmmmmm. Just like the old joke: what's the difference between communism and capitalism? In communism man exploits man and in capitalism it's the opposite.
That was a John Kenneth Galbraith saying.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Bring them back. Pay in a dollar a week, and then pull it out come Christmas with no interest earned, maybe a monthly fee. Sorta like those kids' savings accounts meant to teach thrift. Twenty years ago, the banks said, hey, this has to carry some fees so we make a profit. So the kids get charged a couple bucks a month 'analysis fee', and end up getting invoices by the end of the year. Some lesson! Some of these abuses were stopped, but these accounts have mostly been phased out.
In the New Feudal age, you won't need school supplies…
You won't need schools…
Scenes from the violent twilight of oil here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Our local schools have had to ask local businesses for school supply donations. Not money - the paper and pencils and rulers and whatnot.
It is beyond sad.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
of my city for parents seeking to supplement their income
for school supplies. None of this would have happened if people
didn't take advanatage of easy credit to have children they could not afford.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Responsible family planning still is not in vogue.
I wonder? Will there be an explosion in population in the red-state bible belt as unemployment numbers climb higher and people are home with nothing to do?
*
their old ammo.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
"None of this would have happened if people
didn't take advanatage of easy credit to have children they could not afford."
None of this would have happened if the consumer and citizen protections put in during the Great Depression weren't removed so that banks could "legally" take people to the cleaners.
This is only the start. If this nation isnt careful, our children will begin to look like those in poor centra-asian areas where the children are lucky to make it school with shoes on, let alone pencils and paper.
This is the end-game of raeganomics and 'conservatism'
Their "rising tide" didn't lift anything except the yachts.
With Obama - I'm just sorry his vision wasn't big enough, his political will wasn't strong enough - and his knowledge of American history wasn't more comprehensive.
If all that had been true - we might be on our way to a real recovery right now.
I'm also sorry he thinks that everyone plays by the same rules in the sandbox. Very naive.
*
ideology to subscribe to.
I don't know if he being an ideologue would automatically imply that we would be placed in a better direction, since there are plenty of ideologies that could make things worse.
Although I somewhat agree with you, in the sense that Obama's lack of ideological stand makes it nearly impossible to figure where he is interested in moving towards. Such uncertainty from the country's leadership is not beneficial, and I find almost impossible to figure where Obama stands. I find that somewhat counter productive and frustrating. Other readers in this forum cope with such lack of clear message, by making all sorts of assumptions... and trying really hard to read in between the lines of the Dem's fuzzy message.
Although, to be honest... these issues may all be part of the growing pains of Obama trying to find his stride as a president. But he really really needs to understand that he needs to provide a clear message and a vision to unify the country around him. His concern for the GOP's "feelings" is getting in the way of doing just that, and thus he is playing completely into the hands of the neocons... who want him desperately to fail.
of Reaganomics, trickle down economics or it's real name, feudalism, is Somalia. Feifdoms run by predatory warlords. The only difference is that the corporations assume the roles of the predatory warlords. Everyone under their control gets nothing.
In the red, U.S. school districts cut yellow buses
Some areas, like Houston, have eliminated all bus service for students within 2 miles of schools, while I have no problem with kids walking to school, I do have a problem with safety.
Somedays it feels like we are circling the drain.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
Because I'm not getting many of those.
We are.
*
It's bad and it's going to keep getting worse.
I'm glad the bankers are happy now that Obama has had the poor bail them out.
Now how about the rest of us? What's he going to do?
Without health care reform - the economy doesn't have a chance. American Business doesn't have chance with the health care yoke around its neck.
*
SAT scores dip for high school class of 2009
Hhmmm, what could have happened?
Great, just great.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
Students are being required to bring their own band-aids and tissues to school also since many of the public schools are no longer providing them.
Teachers often pay for supplies out of their own pockets but thanks to this Republinazi Christofascist economy, teachers who areadt don't get paid well are incapable of buying supplies for their students.
Pay for something first ......... shocking idea.
And it sure as hell didn't start in the depression in the US, people the world over for many years before the US existed paid for things up front ....... that's the new concept in the US.
where are you from?
is your response.
Back in the 1960's we used layaway all the time in Los Angeles. We also made a lot of our own clothes with fabrics from Woolworths and our own sewing machines.
Now Woolworth's is gone and fabrics, along with zippers and buttons, and the patterns, cost more than the finished product. Our sewing machines haven't been oiled in years.
And the clothes are OH SO UGLY these days. You gals and guys have NO IDEA how awful you all look. The richest among you look like walking advertisements for uber crap.
I think we need to make sure we have skills. The stores aren't going to survive this pretend turnaround.
This all started when schools began requiring parents to have their child's entire year's school supplies at the beginning of the school year. That could be at least a $100 for grade school kids and a lot more for older kids when they to have graphing calculators and such. I remember all we had to have was a no2 pencil and some notebook paper.
I haven't understood the latest trend of back-to-school shopping. Parents have to go to the store with a school-approved list and have to buy those exact things? I'm only 34, and I remember heading off to school the first day with a Trapper Keeper (that acquired more and more duct tape on it with every year), some paper, and a pencil box with pencils, eraser, and small ruler. And as I needed stuff throughout the year (calculator, compass, protractor, etc.) Mom bought it.
Since I never plan to have children, I'll never have to deal with this mandatory school shopping spree.... Can a parent out there explain to me the school's reasoning for this?
In case anyone is interested, I saw a blind guy on a corner with a whole CUP full of pencils just waiting to be swiped.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
I don't know, is this really a bad thing? People don't use credit cards now and actually pay for stuff right? That doesn't seem so bad.
My mom used layaway for tons of stuff growing up, before credit was so widely available.
But I could be wrong and be a little ignorant on the costs of layaway
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