Walmart starts holiday layaway programme

CHICAGO: Walmart Stores Inc has begun its holiday layaway programme as it hopes to cash-in early on demand for gifts like toys, which saw slower sales growth industry-wide last December and has struggled to pick up so far this year.

The world’s largest retailer started the layaway programme on September 1, a day before it did last year where customers can pay as little as $10 to hold items worth a minimum of $50.

Layaway programmes allow shoppers to put aside holiday merchandise like electronics and toys and make payments in instalments until the full price has been paid.

These plans tend to have a sizeable impact on sales and analyst estimates suggest the programme accounts for as much as 15 per cent of holiday revenues at Walmart stores in poorer areas of the United States.

Walmart expects demand for toys to remain strong this year, despite worries about possible viewer fatigue after two strong years for the Star Wars franchise.

“We think episode eight is going to be a strong movie, strong theatrical, the weekend was what we expected and what was going on in our stores and anticipate that will carry through,” Anne Marie Kehoe, Walmart’s Vice President of toys, said on a conference call. The retailer released Star Wars products at its stores on September 1.

She said Walmart has stocked a bigger assortment of Star Wars items at a variety of price points this year. — Reuters