Although some retailers talk about layaway purchases as broadening consumer choices, such options actually feed on desperation "arising from many Americans' inability to borrow, save and, most important, earn," said Louis Hyman, ILR School assistant professor of labor relations, law and history.

Reintroduced by Walmart this fall after a five-year absence from the chain's stores, layaway "is being promoted with a moral shine of being 'debt-free' when, like interest charges, all it does is sap working people's incomes," Hyman said in an interview.

He is the author of "Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink" (Princeton University Press, 2011) and "Borrow: the American Way of Debt," to be published in January (Vintage Books).

"If shoppers don't pay off the layaway, then they don't get the goods. Worse than missing a Black Friday sale would be not having anything to put under the tree. Better to save and to be sure that there will be presents for Christmas," said Hyman, who criticized layaway plans in an Oct. 12 opinion piece in The New York Times.

Shoppers can get the same benefits, plus interest, by putting money in a no-cost savings account, he said. "Even the proverbial cookie jar would be better since it doesn't charge any fees."

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), echoing Hyman's concerns about layaway, said he will call for a Federal Trade Commission investigation of layaway fees if stores don't clarify their procedures.

Layaway, a 1930s invention that lost favor in recent years due to credit card availability, is also making a comeback this holiday season at such chains as Toys 'R' Us and Sears.

Hyman explained how layaway works in his Times piece:

"Imagine a mother going to Walmart on Oct. 17 and buying $100 worth of Christmas toys. She makes a down payment of $10 and pays a $5 service fee. Over the next two months she pays off the rest. In effect, she is paying $5 in interest for a $90 loan for two months: the equivalent of a credit card with a 44 percent annual percentage rate, a level most of us would consider predatory.

"In comparison, even a card with an 18 percent A.P.R. would charge only half as much interest -- and she could take those presents home the same day.

"Then consider what would happen if she couldn't finish all the payments. Walmart would give her the money back, less $10. If she borrowed that $90 and paid $15 in interest for two months, she would have the equivalent of a jaw-dropping interest rate of 131 percent."

Hyman said that layaway's return "isn't a signal that consumers have more choice. It's a signal that in today's cruel economy, there's no choice left."

Mary Catt is assistant director of communications at the ILR School.