Certain Good Samaritan shoppers, who have given families reliant upon layaway a helping hand, are helping create a positive press cycle for Kmart this holiday season. At Kmart stores across the country, 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, reports the Associated Press.
And while there have been reports of Good Samaritans helping others at Wal-Mart, the phenomenon is largely occurring in Kmart. Salima Yala, Kmart's division vice president for layaway, told AP that the chain may be the focus of layaway generosity because it is one of the few large discount stores that has offered layaway year-round for about four decades.
“The beauty of this is that it's organic and coming from the customers and not from us,” Yala told The Grand Rapids Press. “It's just people to people.”
For Kmart, this may be a Christmas miracle, considering that layaway stories don't always end so happily.