I bought shit on layaway before. my aunt worked at Kiddie World (toy store) when i was just a tot and on a limited allowance. I had a very low income and zero credit. I also had no self control with money so... she hooked a brotha up.

Basically you want expensive shit X

Your income is like a fraction of the cost of X

so you just pay your aunt every week when you get your allowance

and after fucking forever, you get your dusty box from the warehouse.

and meanwhile, you dont get diabetes from buying candy every week.

win win.

Layaway is for uneducated (well, stupid) poor people. I know you guys already covered that but I had to say it again. Poor people are not poor because they don't make enough money, they are poor because they do not manage money very well (buy lottery tickets, rent to own 60" TVs, etc).

I've used layaway one time. Years ago Walmart stopped carrying Tivo DVRs. I heard from people in other parts of the country that they were drastically dropping the prices (from $200 down to $50). I went to Walmart and put 6 of them on layaway. There were no fees and I only had to pay like $10 down on each. I kept them on layaway for a few months but they never dropped the prices in the computer so I ended up getting my money back and moving on.