By Beth Quinn

Those of you under the age of 30 might have never heard the word “layaway” before. It means “pay for something before you bring it home.”

Weird, huh.

Layaway went the way of the dinosaur with the advent of credit cards, but I’ve come to find out that it’s now making a comeback. Our nouveau poverty is making the idea of layaway cool again.

Let me explain how it works. When you want to buy something but don’t have enough money to pay for it, the store helps out by holding your purchase while you gradually pay it off. Once it’s all paid for, you can have it.

I first realized that layaway has now been re-invented when I saw a big banner in the window of Michael’s Appliance Center in Middletown last week:

LAYAWAY

it said.

“Are you kidding me?” I said to my husband. “They’re offering layaway! I haven’t seen layaway since Playtogs closed.”

More catch-up needed, I think, for those of you under the age of 30 and those who weren’t born here. Playtogs was Middletown’s first discount center, located out on 17M. It’s been closed for years, but that doesn’t mean it’s forgotten.

To this day, when someone asks one of us home-growns for directions, we often begin by saying, “Well, you know where Playtogs used to be, right? So you go past there heading toward Goshen and then you ….”

If the driver seeking directions doesn’t know where Playtogs used to be, oh well. He just has to stay lost, or seek help from someone who also doesn’t know where Playtogs used to be and can give directions from someplace that still exists.

But anyone who ever shopped at Playtogs knows why it comes to mind when you think of the word “layaway.” If you bought something there and couldn’t pay for it all at once, they’d hoist it up to the ceiling where it would endlessly circle the store on revolving racks until you came back with the money to rescue it from retail limbo.

On any given day, you could look up at the ceiling and see hundreds of items hanging on hooks: dresses, tennis rackets, shoes, hair dryers, underwear, jewelry boxes, tires, nighties.

I once had a pair of suede dress boots up there for six weeks. I’d go in once a week to make a payment and wave to them as they swung by. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to see them come down once they were all mine, paid for in full.

Layaway gradually went out of style to be replaced by credit cards, instant credit, store credit – buy now, pay later. The fun of anticipation was replaced with the temporary thrill of instant gratification – take home now, no payments for 12 months. The thing’s worn out by the time you have to pony up for it.

But now, layaway is making a comeback. Frank Dragone, sales manager for Michael’s Appliance Center, said they started offering a layaway plan this year for the first time. The store holds your purchase for you until you can pay it off. No fee. No interest.

And the concept is a hit. “A lot of people come in and say, wow, we haven’t seen a layaway sign in years, and they think it’s great,” said Dragone. “Some people are starting to accept the idea that they can’t always have what they want right away.”

He said the store has about a dozen customers gradually paying off layaway items right now. “But others, no,” he said. “They want it now, so they take out a charge card. And of course there are sometimes emergencies. If you need a new washer, well, sometimes that can’t wait.”

Some of the big box stores are offering layaway, too, although sometimes there’s a fee for the service, which is not exactly in the Playtogs spirit. Online stores are starting to catch on, too. There’s now E-Zlayaway.com, elayawaymall.com, elayaway.com – you get the picture.

Layaway gives people a cooling off period to figure out the difference between what they need and what they want. Sometimes, when you walk away from a layaway item, you realize you didn’t need it after all. You can always change your mind if you haven’t already taken something home and folded, spindled, mutilated or otherwise ripped, dented or ruined it before the first payment is even made.

In today’s economy, losers are the ones running up credit cards. The cool kids know that instant gratification just isn’t fashionable anymore. They’re waiting for something until they know they really need it – and they know they can pay for it.

As for those elephant bell bottoms I thought I so desperately needed decades ago, well … I changed my mind after I left the store. I think they were still circling the ceiling years later when Playtogs closed its doors for the last time.

Beth can be reached at beth@zestoforange.com.

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