Lay-by

Not, as you might think, a set of rail tracks by the side of the road. This is actually a peculiar artifact that is still embedded in much of Australia's retail industry. The concept is that you 'buy' somethng, only you don't have the money. With me so far?

So what you do is take it to the lay-by counter where they put it on a shelf for you. You don't get to take it away. The idea is that you come back and make regular payments until it's fully paid off, then you can walk out with the product.

Outside observers may be puzzled by this strategy. After all, what's the matter with just leaving the product on the regular shelf instead and just saving up money? After all, by the time you've got the money it'll probably be cheaper, or they'll be a better one, or you might have no need of the product any longer.

I don't really understand it. The flimsy premise of lay-by appears to be that you might buy something 'on special' so you get the price you want, without paying credit charges. I think it has it's roots in the days of the labour-based economy where it was normal to be paid on a weekly basis. These days, even if you did get paid weekly, you'd buy it on your credit card and just pay your credit card off by the end of the month and not pay charges, surely?

Lest you think this is some quirky service that never gets used, if you were to visit any of the major department stores in the cities, you would find quite a substantial space set aside for lay-by. Staff manning a counter, paperwork or computer records and of course shelves of space given over to boxes of products that no one had the money for...

As with many things in Australia, it's just been happening for so long that no one appears to have noticed how silly it is. I don't blame the retailers for doing it, it's clear it ups their sales, allows them to provide a purchase rush for customers without the funds and a correspondingly high chance they will forcefully save up and obtain their lay-by.

I'm just baffled why the customers can't see how there's absolutely no benefit to themselves whatsoever... I guess they just notch it up as another price of doing business in Australia like credit card surcharges, charges for using cash machines (I'm not joking) and my favorite - charges for daring to buy something in a currency that isn't Australian dollars.

Little wonder that the vampire banks are doing alright in Australia eh? They've got their own captive village of idiots happy to let themselves be bled dry because that's the way it's always happened.