Denver Post "lays away" obvious information on story on Wal-Mart layaway

A Wednesday, Dec. 6 Denver Post story that ran under the headline, "Some Wal-Mart customers upset layaway has gone away," should receive praise for being written and run in the first place. The erosion of consumer rights for poorer Americans is a growing problem.

Essentially, the story provides an overview of Wal-Mart's plan to eliminate layaway for its customers, with the ultimate rationale being, of course, the bottom line. Layaway's not making money for Wal-Mart.

The secondary rationale, one that resurfaces repeatedly in American political and economic life, is that of the tyranny of the majority. In this case, though, it is more indirect than in political life (where one can see it, for example, in the denial of basic human rights to gays by way of referendum). According to sources from Wal-Mart quoted in The Post story, it is because the percentage of customers taking advantage of layaway has dropped below a critical mass that they have decided to eliminate it.

Here, and elsewhere in majoritarian societies, if you don't run with the mainstream, politically, or economically, your SOL. This scenario gets played out repeatedly, though it is typically, and conveniently, ignored by moderates and conservatives who sing the praises of an allegedly perfect American democracy and "free market."

In the end, this Post Wal-Mart story fails to perhaps the most basic question of all --

What are the financial terms of Wal-Mart's layaway plan, and layaway plans in general (for now, notes the story, K-Mart is continuing its layaway program)?

In other words, what, if any, interest does Wal-Mart charge customers on items put away for layaway?

In fact, the story implicitly casts credit cards (with their loan-shark interest rates of 15 to 30 percent) as the easy answer to layaway for the financially less fortunate.

Wal-Mart sources stress that they'll offer zero percent interest cards for SOME customers who used to take advantage of layaway. Of course, they fail to mention that even those who get these cards will see their interest rate skyrocket after the first year.

In the end, high interest credit card rates are no substitute for layaway programs that allowed less fortunate customers to buy higher priced goods at Wal-Mart. Now, they either won't be able to afford those things at all, or they'll end up paying more, perhaps a lot more, while lining the pockets of credit card giants like Citibank. Another possibility is that they might end up going down the street to a rent-to-own place and lose even more money than they would if they charge their next washer and dryer on a high-interest credit card.

Though it might not be a earth-shatteringly important cause, you might want to consider signing the petition to "Keep Wal Mart Layaway" at -- http://www.petitiononline.com/tex3218/petition.html