Back in the day when I was a younger version of myself, I was a full-time student and part-time pocket money takin’ teenager.
Buying video games in the 1990’s was a romantic affair – weeks, sometimes months – of visiting a store, picking up the video game box, looking at the back, dreaming of the day I’d be able to afford it. Either my parents will cave to spoiling their child, or I’d have to save up my pocket money.
Target had this great service called ‘Layby’. I could put down a deposit and make regular payments until it was paid off. There were no online orders, no next day delivery and no automated payments. You had to take your receipt in-store and pay on-time and with cadence. The things we did for video games!
Fast forward to 2022: Laybuy, Afterpay / Clearpay, Klarna and even PayPal are in on the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) gold rush. These companies have a combined value in the hundreds of billions of dollars.