# Anonymous do-gooders pay off strangers' layaway bills at Kmart **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706 "2011-12-10T05:07:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706/1 "2011-12-10T05:07:39Z")
I think this is a great story: [http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45603068/ns/today-good\_news/#.TuLlsWARYuw](http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45603068/ns/today-good_news/#.TuLlsWARYuw) > [@](#): > > "This lady came up randomly and said, ‘Can I, you know, pay off some people’s layaway?’ " said Dannell Goddard. Goddard works at Kmart in the layaway department. She told 24 Hour News 8 that when she first heard the request, she was a bit confused. > "I was like, 'Well, are you trying to pick them up? ‘Cause you can’t pick them up if you don’t have an ID,’ " Goddard said. "And [the mystery woman] replied, ‘Nope, I just want to help people.’ " > The woman looked through several of the 800 or so layaway contract tickets at the store. She randomly picked and paid the bill on three of them. She paid about $500 between all three of them and left a $10 balance on each of the accounts. So many people are having a hard time in this economy, and Michigan has been particularly hard-hit, so I think this was an awesome thing for this person to do. Best of all, it looks like the first anonymous Santa inspired someone else to do the same thing soon after the story was aired in the media. What a great way to do a “random act of kindness”. Sometimes I feel very misanthropic when I think about all the awful things the human race does. This kind of story is a good antidote to those feelings. ---
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706/2 "2011-12-10T10:18:48Z")
It’s nice if you know that person is really needy. It would be just my luck to do this and have the person I helped be a millionaire who just liked the concept of layaway. I recall in the 70s my mother used layaway, though we never needed to. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706/3 "2011-12-10T13:48:31Z")
Yeah, but then the millionaire might be inspired to pay for **everyone** else, because your random kindness gave him his christmas spirit back, or something. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706/4 "2011-12-10T14:48:18Z")
Cool, this reminds me of the “Pay it forward” story a few years ago. A coffe house somewhere where in people were paying for the next person’s in line coffee. (or something like that) The streak lasted for several days. ---
**Author:** ![Lilacs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Lilacs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilacs)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706/5 "2011-12-10T15:15:15Z")
In Kansas City there is at least one person who randomly gives people money for Christmas. I’d seen news stories on it for a couple of years, but one of my friends was given $200 for her Christmas shopping while she and her daughter were at KMart. This was probably two years ago. He told her he just wanted her to have a good Christmas. She is a single mom with two kids and always was short of money so he chose well. And just recently, someone dropped a diamond into a Salvation Army kettle in Shawnee Mission (Kansas City suburb.) [http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/08/3309600/diamond-dropped-in-local-salvation.html](http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/08/3309600/diamond-dropped-in-local-salvation.html) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706/6 "2011-12-10T20:32:59Z")
I don’t think a lot of millionaires shop at K-Mart. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706/7 "2011-12-11T22:50:45Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > I don’t think a lot of millionaires shop at K-Mart. Yeah, especially nowadays. I feel like Kmart has declined over the last few years and is more grungy and depressing than it used to be (though my SO is convinced that it has always been that way and it’s just that I am remembering it better than it was). Awesome news: [More “copycats”](http://www.wzzm13.com/news/article/189311/14/More-surprise-payments-on-Kmart-layaway-accounts) have shown up and are continuing the awesome random acts of kindness. 😃 What a cool thing to see! Hope it continues to spread. Do we have any Doper millionaires who want to spread this elsewhere? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706/8 "2011-12-12T03:23:56Z")
> [@Lilacs](#): > > In Kansas City there is at least one person who randomly gives people money for Christmas. I’d seen news stories on it for a couple of years, but one of my friends was given $200 for her Christmas shopping while she and her daughter were at KMart. This was probably two years ago. He told her he just wanted her to have a good Christmas. She is a single mom with two kids and always was short of money so he chose well. [Larry Stewart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Stewart_%28philanthropist%29) was the original “Secret Santa” but died in early 2007. Since his death others in the area have continued the tradition. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706/9 "2011-12-16T02:02:01Z")
Looks like this is now going nationwide: 🙂 [http://news.yahoo.com/anonymous-donors-pay-off-kmart-layaway-accounts-221000605.html](http://news.yahoo.com/anonymous-donors-pay-off-kmart-layaway-accounts-221000605.html) ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-do-gooders-pay-off-strangers-layaway-bills-at-kmart/605706/10 "2011-12-16T20:37:55Z")
[QUOTE=lavenderviolet] I feel like Kmart has declined over the last few years and is more grungy and depressing than it used to be (though my SO is convinced that it has always been that way and it’s just that I am remembering it better than it was). [/QUOTE] IME, they’ve always been a sad, grimy place. I was thinking that Kmart has done a decent job of cleaning up and brightening its stores, but still has work to do. Buying Sears a few years back didn’t really help them.