Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts

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.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Clinton tells developing world to be wary of donors

BUSAN, South Korea (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged developing nations on Wednesday to be "smart shoppers" on foreign aid, warning that powerful emerging economies such as China may be more interested in exploiting natural resources than promoting real development.

Clinton delivered the warning to a global summit on development and aid held in South Korea, where both traditional rich nation donors, cash-rich middle income countries, non-governmental organizations and private sector groups have gathered to discuss the future of the global aid effort.

She said foreign assistance should focus more closely on priorities set by developing countries, which must themselves do more to root out corruption, improve rule of law and remove local tariffs and other barriers to growth.

"There is another step that developing countries need to take to be smart shoppers," Clinton said.

"Be wary of donors who are more interested in extracting your resources than in building your capacity. Some funding might help fill short-term budget gaps, but we've seen time and again that these quick fixes won't produce self-sustaining results."

Clinton did not mention China by name, but her comments appeared clearly aimed at Beijing's fast-expanding aid programs overseas, particularly in Africa, where critics say China is now using assistance programs to pry open markets for oil, minerals and other resources as colonial powers did in the past.

Clinton is the first secretary of state to address the global aid gathering, reflecting her personal commitment to promoting overseas development as part of a "smart power" initiative which aims to increase U.S. national security by fighting poverty and instability abroad.

CHANGING ECONOMICS OF AID

She noted that developed nations themselves, which still account for the lion's share of the some $122 billion in annual international aid flows worldwide, needed to do more to coordinate their aid effort, increase effectiveness, and cut the political red tape that still encumbers many aid programs.

"All too often, donors' decisions have been driven more by our own political interests or policy preferences or development orthodoxies than by our partners' needs," Clinton said.

But with many rich nations mired in financial crisis and aid budgets facing cuts, the Busan conference has focused on new players in the global development scene: emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India, which are fast ramping up their own bilateral aid programs, and private sector companies which are also stepping in to the fill the gap.

China, in particular, has resisted efforts to map out global rules for foreign assistance, arguing that as a developing nation itself it should not be bound by guidelines on transparency, accountability and human rights when it makes its decisions on foreign aid.

Beijing now gives an estimated $10 billion per year in foreign aid -- compared to about $33 billion for the United States -- but much if it remains opaque and tied to Chinese economic and construction projects.

Aid organizations said the Busan meeting had put off a decision on measuring new standards for accountability and transparency. "Negotiators in Busan have kicked the can down the road, delaying decisions about a plan for better aid for another six months," said Gregory Adams of Oxfam.

U.S. officials said one bright spot was the growing role of the private sector. Clinton urged developing nations to make the most of the growing business interest.

"I know that some of you are reluctant to do this, and that is understandable. You have seen corporations put their profits ahead of your interests in the past and you have suffered the consequences," Clinton said, adding that many modern corporations were taking a different tack.

"If you improve the business environment in your country, while also setting clear expectations for the private sector about how they need to operate, you can create new opportunities for your people."

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Sanjeev Miglani)

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.