Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"Well, the layaway used to be called the poor man's credit. What would happen is you go buy something in a store; you didn't have enough money to pay for it out right, but the store would say, 'Ok, we'll put in back in the warehouse. You pay a little bit each month, and then when you've paid the total cost, you get the product.' There wouldn't be a credit charge per se. There would be a relatively small service fee. What we're seeing now is that layaway plans have come back. They almost disappeared because people simply put everything on their credit card. Now people are more cognizant of what their credit balance is. They're trying to cut back on credit. And so layaways have made a come back. So I think it is directly related to the severity of the recession and the economy, and probably for many people, this actually is a pretty good idea. You don't get the product right away - you don't get the couch or the TV right away - you get it on a delayed basis, but on the other hand, you don't put things on your credit card. You don't run up an interest rate bill. So you do have to delay getting the product, but probably it's better for many people's finances."