[real-eyes] e: true story Fw: > Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts
- From: jack and bakey <braille_cat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:09:32 -0600
It would indeed my Friend! I'd do it gladly if I had the moola!
TexasJack
----- Original Message -----
>From: "jose" <crunch1@xxxxxxxxx
>To: "real eyes list" <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Date sent: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:59:32 -0600
>Subject: [real-eyes] true story Fw: > Anonymous donors pay off
Kmart layaway accounts
>wouldn't it be cool if we all go to k-mart and pay off layaways
for people
>in lew of buying gifts this year?
>Jose Lopez, President
>Lopez Language Services, LLC
>"We Speak Your Language"
>Call us anytime at 888.824.3022
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Reginald George
>To: igot2bme@xxxxxxxxx ; cpyper@xxxxxxxxx ; Sagi McCleary ;
crunch1 ; Chriss
>Frahm ; Christine McDonald
>Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 10:58 AM
>Subject: Fw: > Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts
>Nice Story,
>Reg
>A Christmas story thatâ??s not canned!
>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - 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.
>Deppe, 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. Under the program, customers can make
purchases but let
>the store hold onto their merchandise as they pay it off slowly
over several
>weeks.
>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."
>___
>Associated Press writers Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa;
Matt Volz, in
>Helena, Mont.; and Jeff Karoub in Detroit contributed to this
report.
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