...Casas Bahia, a retailer of household goods...has been making money successfully from low-income consumers for decades, largely on the premise that the poor do indeed make good payers - if properly screened. Michael Klein, managing director, says one reason for the company's success lies in something understood by his father, a Polish immigrant, when he began selling table and bed linen from a handcart more than 50 years ago: "He understood that the poor want to be treated with respect. They want to be treated as if they were rich."...The real secret of Casas Bahia's success, however, lies in its system of customer finance. Just 10 per cent of sales are paid for in full at time of purchase. Of the remainder, 20 per cent go on credit cards...and the rest on hire purchase traditionally financed by Casas Bahia's own capital (although since 2004, 25 per cent of this portfolio has been financed by Bradesco, Brazil's biggest private sector bank).