Warm and Fuzzy Grocery Debt?

The dark side of Buy Now, Pay Later

Photo by Maria Lin Kim on Unsplash

I’ve written quite a bit recently about the convenience and ubiquity of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products such as Sezzle, Klarna, Afterpay and others.

Buy Now, Regret Later?

So, a recent piece by Mary Finnegan that takes a deep dive into the world of BNPL caught my attention.

State of “Buy Now, Pay Later”. 07.08.22 | by Mary Finnegan | Limited Liabilities by Colbeck | Jul, 2022 | Medium

Finnegan does a great job of presenting both sides of the BNPL debate. That is, consumer advocates are pointing out all the many risks of the products while proponents and founders of BNPL companies point to the benefits side.

Here’s one of the sections I noticed that is, to me, a cause for concern:

BNPL providers, for their part, hope their product continues to be “top of wallet” while expanding credit to historically underserved groups. “The number one most visited physical retail used by Debit Plus consumers right now is Walmart groceries,” said Levchin. “That’s probably the warmest…