The winner. $5 plus cost is the total fee. How the Schmuck comes up with his figures is beyond me. Any money paid aftet the $5 goes 100% to the cost of the items. What part of a minimum of 10% to place an item in lawaway does he not understand. It is not 10% interest it is 10% toward principle or cost of item. That is simply to discourage someone from overspending. Generally most persons have 10% of their layaway purchase price on them. Layaway has worked in this manner for decades.
And the layaway fee and the 10% down also prevents people from putting items on layaway and never coming back for them.
There is a cost to retailers to have layaway programs, that being items taken from the shelves but still remaining in inventory and taking up valuable space in the store’s backroom.