Too stupid to recognize the difference between need and want.
My wife wanted a freezer, and happened to be at a rent to own place with a friend. She noticed the cash price @ the rent to own place for the freezer she wanted was about $700, the rental price was well over $1,000. We went to Sam’s and bought it, and paid just slightly over $200 cash. The rent to own places are a real sucker’s deal.
I went into one of these stores once thinking I might rent something instead of buying. Promptly walked back out after determining it was a complete scam.
They were charging more to rent something than it would cost to buy it. Heck! for a fraction of the amount they were charging you could pull up craigs list and buy something better! I couldn’t imagine how they could stay in business.
But never underestimate the stupidity of Obama voters!
Decisions like this help to keep them “poor” and out of options.
Rather than go out and buy a $700 lift/recliner to aid in my hip replacement recovery, I found the local rent-to-own place rented one for $20 a week. Rented one for six weeks. They delivered it and six weeks later I called and they came and picked it back up. Done.
And, no, insurance wouldn’t cover it.
Any of these customers could save the weekly payment amounts for a few weeks and buy these exact items used or even on sale.
Am I supposed to feel sorry for these idiots?
Two words...
Thrift shop.
If I want something but can’t afford it, I simply don’t buy it. Why is that so hard for people to handle?
The cost is not because they are poor.
The cost is based on the fact that on average most of the purchase agreements will never be fulfilled by the customer. They will make a few payments, ruin the furniture, or sell it at a yard sale, and then quit making the payments.
Many of those that do pay require constant reminders of past due payments, and then there is always losses due to repossession of damaged furniture.
Customers that establish a good payment history are quickly granted credit at regular retail stores.
The very first thing I did was to do a “Find on this Page” search WITHIN the article looking for the word “job”. What happened was that the search popped OUTSIDE the article to OTHER WAPO articles.
NO JOB. Imagine that. MY conclusion is that mister Donald and miss Jamie BOTH have no jobs and are living on EBT....TANF, WICs, Section 8, ObamaPhone, utilities assistance, church pantries, or whatever. They don’t appear to be working. They are so worried that their freeloaded money doesn’t reach as far as their impulses. Color me “I don’t give a crap.”
I went to the goodwill store and paid $25 for a sofa.
I don’t care if the kids spill food on it or if the cats scratch it.
$25 cash money. No rental contract needed.
There are plenty of places that you can buy a new sofa for less than $1,500. And that is before you consider buying 2nd hand.
I don’t think it is sad, it is the mentality of having to have something right now. People used to save for something they want. I used to (still do).
Last place I worked had lots of cars from places like J.D. Byrider and such. Sad, indeed. One couple had TV/Furniture from Rent-A-Center and a car from JDB. Plus a pot habit, which made the least sense. Instead of waiting and buying quantity at better price, they’d end up blowing for a quarter oz every couple days. [I knew their dealer and he told me.] But they couldn’t wait or the she of the pair would get ‘migraines’ although I reckon she was jonesing... Talk about piss-poor money management!
The guy makes maybe $500 a week and they spend $110 on a sofa?
But a big part of the problem are the patrons who think they have to have the newest and best. The sofa in our living room was puchased at a church auction for $35 over ten years ago. It is still comfortable and serviceable. We've spent $35 or so twice on a new cover when the old one wore out, so it has cost us a rental charge of $10.50 per year counting the cost of the covers. And we own nothing on it.
One word.....Craigslist
I’ve decorated rooms for me and entire houses for my girls that way and spent pennies on the dollar.
You can’t look at RTO costs versus regular cash price. Better comparison is making the purchase on a high interest credit card then making the minim payments for the duration. RTO still generally higher, but you do have the option of returning it.
Let’s see, when I first got married, our couch was an old piece of junk I liberated from my parents house. Same for my kitchen table, and chairs. Bed frame and headboard was a garage sale item. 27 years later, it’s still what we sleep on every night. Our bedroom furniture was what we each had growing up. We replaced it with a really nice set we inherited from my aunt.
We replaced the couch finally when we could AFFORD TO BUY a new one and kept it for 20 years.
It’s what you do when you’re not well off. Now, we can afford to buy whatever we want, yet, we still live pretty frugally. It’s much preferred over having the best new stuff and wondering every month where the money’s coming from.
By midday that Thursday, $51 of the $230 had already vanished, used for gas and cigarettes, and Abbott headed to Wal-Mart looking to spend as little as possible on groceries. She grabbed a 12-pack of ramen, some hot-dog buns and bumped into a friend, Rachel Bryant, in the Halloween aisle.
“You look tired,” Bryant said.
“My sugar levels are out of whack,” Abbott said.
Bryant nodded and then Abbott went quiet, dabbing her eyes.
“I’ve held it in all day long,” she said, choking out the words.
She wanted her living room suite NOW. NOW had a price. It's not the seller's fault for giving her what she wanted any more than it's Phillip Morris' (or Altria's) fault that she wastes money killing herself with smokes or Wal-Mart's fault she's killing herself with poor nutrition. She's grown up. She can make grown up decisions and live with the consequences.
Some people don't do freedom well.