Apparently, a bunch of people have decided to pay off the layaway accounts of families with kids for Christmas so that they can give toys to their kids w/o worrying about having to pay it off.
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[url]http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/16/anonymous-donors-pay-off-kmart-layaway-accounts/[/url]
OMAHA, NEBRASKA-- The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children.
He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn't be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the counter.
"She told him, 'No, I'm paying for it,'" recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in Indianapolis. "He just stood there and looked at her and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn't, and that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears."
At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers' layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn't afford, especially toys and children's clothes set aside by impoverished parents.
Before she left the store Tuesday evening, the Indianapolis woman in her mid-40s had paid the layaway orders for as many as 50 people. On the way out, she handed out $50 bills and paid for two carts of toys for a woman in line at the cash register.
"She was doing it in the memory of her husband who had just died, and she said she wasn't going to be able to spend it and wanted to make people happy with it," Deppe said. The woman did not identify herself and only asked people to "remember Ben," an apparent reference to her husband.
Deepe, who said she's worked in retail for 40 years, had never seen anything like it.
"It was like an angel fell out of the sky and appeared in our store," she said.
Most of the donors have done their giving secretly.
Dona Bremser, an Omaha nurse, was at work when a Kmart employee called to tell her that someone had paid off the $70 balance of her layaway account, which held nearly $200 in toys for her 4-year-old son.
"I was speechless," Bremser said. "It made me believe in Christmas again."
Dozens of other customers have received similar calls in Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana and Montana.
The benefactors generally ask to help families who are squirreling away items for young children.
They often pay a portion of the balance, usually all but a few dollars or cents so the layaway order stays in the store's system.
The phenomenon seems to have begun in Michigan before spreading, Kmart executives said.
"It is honestly being driven by people wanting to do a good deed at this time of the year," said Salima Yala, Kmart's division vice president for layaway.
The good Samaritans seem to be visiting mainly Kmart stores, though a Wal-Mart spokesman said a few of his stores in Joplin, Mo., and Chicago have also seen some layaway accounts paid off.
Kmart representatives say they did nothing to instigate the secret Santas or spread word of the generosity. But it's happening as the company struggles to compete with chains such as Wal-Mart and Target.
Kmart may be the focus of layaway generosity, Yala said, because it is one of the few large discount stores that has offered layaway year-round for about four decades.
The sad memories of layaways lost prompted at least one good Samaritan to pay off the accounts of five people at an Omaha Kmart, said Karl Graff, the store's assistant manager.
"She told me that when she was younger, her mom used to set up things on layaway at Kmart, but they rarely were able to pay them off because they just didn't have the money for it," Graff said.
He called a woman who had been helped, "and she broke down in tears on the phone with me.
She wasn't sure she was going to be able to pay off their layaway and was afraid their kids weren't going to have anything for Christmas."
"You know, 50 bucks may not sound like a lot, but I tell you what, at the right time, it may as well be a million dollars for some people," Graff said.
Graff's store alone has seen about a dozen layaway accounts paid off in the last 10 days, with the donors paying $50 to $250 on each account.
"To be honest, in retail, it's easy to get cynical about the holidays, because you're kind of grinding it out when everybody else is having family time," Graff said. "It's really encouraging to see this side of Christmas again."
Lori Stearnes of Omaha also benefited from the generosity of a stranger who paid all but $58 of her $250 layaway bill for toys for her four youngest grandchildren.
Stearnes said she and her husband live paycheck to paycheck, but she plans to use the money she was saving for the toys to help pay for someone else's layaway.
In Missoula, Mont., a man spent more than $1,200 to pay down the balances of six customers whose layaway orders were about to be returned to a Kmart store's inventory because of late payments.
Store employees reached one beneficiary on her cellphone at Seattle Children's Hospital, where her son was being treated for an undisclosed illness.
"She was yelling at the nurses, 'We're going to have Christmas after all!'" store manager Josine Murrin said.
A Kmart in Plainfield Township, Mich., called Roberta Carter last week to let her know a man had paid all but 40 cents of her $60 layaway.
Carter, a mother of eight from Grand Rapids, Mich., said she cried upon hearing the news. She and her family have been struggling as she seeks a full-time job.
"My kids will have clothes for Christmas," she said.
Angie Torres, a stay-at-home mother of four children under the age of 8, was in the Indianapolis Kmart on Tuesday to make a payment on her layaway bill when she learned the woman next to her was paying off her account.
"I started to cry. I couldn't believe it," said Torres, who doubted she would have been able to pay off the balance. "I was in disbelief. I hugged her and gave her a kiss."
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It's happening in California, too
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[url]http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_19566232[/url]
t began last week in Grand Rapids, Mich., with a single act of generosity: A woman reportedly paid off the Kmart layaway accounts of several strangers.
As word spread, the phenomenon gathered strength, flowing outward from the Midwest, fueled by news accounts and social media. And this week, the great layaway wave rolled into the Bay Area, inspiring benevolence from people trying to make the holiday season a little less burdensome for fellow citizens whose wallets are light.
Kmarts in Hayward, Redwood City and San Mateo confirmed they had been the recipients of largesse. The store on Mission Boulevard in Hayward had received only one donation as of late Friday afternoon, but it was a whopper. One man contributed $9,800, paying down 63 accounts, according to store manager John Pawlik. Store employees waded through a list of accounts Friday, calling incredulous customers. Some reacted to the news with shock, others with tears, Pawlik said.
"We tell them it was Santa Claus coming in to pay off their layaway," Pawlik said.
The donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, said in an email Friday that he learned about the Kmart layaway campaign Thursday night. "I couldn't sleep last night thinking about it and wanted to help," said the man, who identified himself only as someone who lives and works in Silicon Valley. "I do not want publicity, only to encourage others to pay it forward."
Kmart hasn't tallied how many accounts have been paid
down across the country, but the number appears to be safely in the dozens -- and perhaps much higher. A spokesman said the company can barely keep track as fresh stories of altruism pop up in states from Florida and Pennsylvania to Oregon and Arizona.
The benefactors generally ask to help families who are squirreling away items for young children. They often pay a portion of the balance, usually all but a few dollars or cents so the layaway order stays in the store's system.
The good Samaritans seem to be visiting mainly Kmart stores, though a Wal-Mart spokesman said a few of its stores in Missouri and Illinois have seen some layaway accounts paid off. Kmart is one of the few large discount stores that offer layaway year-round. Under the program, customers can make purchases but let the store hold onto their merchandise as they pay it off slowly over several weeks.
Kmart representatives say they did nothing to instigate the secret Santas or spread word of the generosity. "It's definitely in the season of giving," said spokesman Tom Aiello. "It's not something we're actively promoting, but we love that our customers are helping other customers."
Three people had stopped by the layaway desk at the Kmart on Delaware Street in San Mateo by 3:30 p.m. Friday to make payments for people they'd never met. One of them was a young woman named Mary, who waited in line for 20 minutes to pay an account down from roughly $270 to $20. Mary, who didn't give her last name, had already visited the store on Veterans Boulevard in Redwood City and plunked down $150, erasing two layaway accounts almost entirely.
"I'm pretty lucky, so I just want to pay it forward," said Mary, who works for a San Mateo software company.
Sam Chatfield, a supervisor at the San Mateo store, got choked up while recalling her conversation with a customer whose account had been sliced from several hundred dollars to a single penny.
"I told her that the Christmas angel had paid her layaway," Chatfield said. "She started crying. It made me start crying."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Nice to see some Christmas spirit and good news amidst the SOPA bill bullshit.
That's strongly heartwarming.
It's Santa obviously.
That's Nice/Friendly. Doesn't this go in Sensationalist headlines?
[QUOTE=Reserved Parkin;33771110]That's Nice/Friendly. Doesn't this go in Sensationalist headlines?[/QUOTE]
I posted it there yesterday.
[QUOTE=hula whoop;33771428]I posted it there yesterday.[/QUOTE]
Slipped my mind to post/look there, sorry.
[QUOTE=cwook;33773644]Slipped my mind to post/look there, sorry.[/QUOTE]
eh, I'm sure more people will see it here anyways haha
I work at Kmart!
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