[real-eyes] Re: e: true story Fw: > Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts
- From: "jose" <crunch1@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:12:25 -0600
yah things are pretty tight around here this year too. I am praying that god
finds a way for me to do this. maybe not this month but some time soon. will
see what happends. he has a way of working out stuff.
Jose Lopez, President
Lopez Language Services, LLC
"We Speak Your Language"
Call us anytime at 888.824.3022
----- Original Message -----
From: "jack and bakey" <braille_cat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 6:09 PM
Subject: [real-eyes] e: true story Fw: > Anonymous donors pay off Kmart
layaway accounts
> 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?Ts 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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>
>
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