DeJean T. – Journal 12

The word layaway is something I’ve heard many times in my life and it always came along with a negative stigma. Especially when someone mentions they received an item on layaway others tend to think the person is going through a tough economical time, but now it doesn’t seem to have a negative attachment. Now that some department stores are offering this service more and more shoppers are using the service more frequently. In James Surowiecki’s article, “Delayed Gratification”, he speaks of how the recession has made buyers use their credit cards a lot less and hvae started to spend their money a lot more wisely when it came to purchasing large priced items.

I can see the appeal for putting things on layaway instead of using a credit card. When using a credit card you get the thrill of instant gratification and thinking of the interest payments would be dealt with on a later date. While using the layaway method to purchase items a person can slowly make payments in reaching their prize and only feeling the small thing of service fee or cancelation fee. The fact the American economic system has enabled us to indulge in over spending the need to have a counter balance like layaway can help people budget and save their money wisely when deciding to making purchases in the furture.