paid-up layaway

Refers to da practice of giving da store's clerk your already-rung-up bags of merchandise to hold for you behind da counter, so dat ya can come pick them up later.

Paid-up layaway is a good idea for when you've either (1) car-pooled into da mall with a friend to shop, and thus you do not have immediate/easy access to a vehicle to transport your purchases at da time you bought them, or (2) you've parked a good distance from da shop dat you're currently in, and you've unexpectedly found large quantities of bargain-priced items and/or one or more heavy/bulky pieces of merchandise dat would be too hard to carry or wheel in a cart all da way back to your vehicle. What you do, therefore, is to tie up da shopping-bags' handles to secure da contents, attach paper labels with your name, and leave them with da clerk; dat way, even if a different salesperson is staffing da checkout-counter when you get back to da shop with your vehicle, said new staffperson can just look at da labels on da bags sitting behind da counter, and thus know for sure dat those bags are indeed yours and already paid for, and thus he/she can feel confident and comfy about handing them over to you.

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