Relegated to the retail closet years ago by the rise in credit card use, store layaway plans are now being revived.

It is a sign of tightening credit and the struggling economy and is aimed at people with low to middle incomes who may have maxed-out their credit cards or face strict home budgets.

Kmart, which never ended layaway but didn't promote it, has made layaway the focus of its seasonal ad campaign. Sears, which kept layaway for jewelry only but did away with the service years ago, announced last week it was bringing layaway back for most items in response to customer demand.

The concept of layaway originated in the Great Depression as a way for cash-poor customers to buy items. Nearly 80 years later, people across the country are struggling with their finances and layaway is providing a way to make purchases.

At the Burlington Coat Factory store in South Toledo, Ohio, clerks were putting more than 30 boxes of items a day into layaway last August, but that has risen to more than 170 boxes per day, said manager Kim Wischow.

Said Richard Feinstein, a retail expert at the Purdue University Retail Institute: "Right now, retailers just have to pull every trick in the book that they can to get people into their stores."

In layaway, customers order or set aside merchandise by paying for the items over a period of time. Retailers charge a fee or downpayment based on the price of the item.

It isn't just large retailers offering the layaway option. Among smaller stores, Broer-Freeman jewelers of Toledo brought it back last month and has had 12 customers use it.

"We haven't done them in a long, long time, but in light of the current circumstance we would be foolish not to - and it's met with some very good responses," said David Cameron, the store's owner.

"You have to do whatever it takes and you can either sit on the sidelines and do nothing or you can take steps to help your customers," Cameron said.

Retail consultant George Rosenbaum, of Leo J. Shapiro & Associates in Chicago, said, "As we moved toward a cashless society, layaway sort of moved into the shadows. But now it has come back as people are trying to avoid using their credit cards."

Kim Freely, a spokesman for both Kmart and Sears Holding Corp., said test marketing showed layaway would be popular this season.