Kmart Layaway Angel Trend Hits Lehigh Valley

A nationwide trend of anonymous shoppers paying off lawaways for strangers at Kmart stores has hit the Lehigh Valley including the Kmarts on Linden Street in Bethlehem and Tilghman Street in South Whitehall Township.

The customers' response? "They're in shock," said Nichol Drozd, assistant manager at the Kmart in South Whitehall.  "Then they end up in tears."

On Monday, a woman paid off four layaways that totaled $600, Drozd said. The woman was among at least 10 people who paid off $1,500 in layaway at the store that included children's winter clothing, boots and games. More than 10 families have been helped.

"It is very touching," Drozd said.

"We just had three over the weekend," the Bethlehem Kmart Assistant Manager Diane Charles told Patch on Monday.

A couple paid $250 toward three different layaways. Two other donors gave about $100 to pay off purchases for strangers.

Charles said she chose layaways that were delinquent and that included children's toys, figuring the layaway angels would have the biggest impact by covering those purchases.

She then called the layaway customers to inform them of their good fortune.

"They were ecstatic," she said. "One person wanted to know who paid it off and I told them it was just a random customer."

Charles said the wave of generosity has also hit the store in Quakertown, where a layaway angel gave $500 to help strangers with their purchases.

Charles has seen do-gooders pay off layaways for strangers in past years but said national publicity seems to be promoting such random acts of kindness this season.

"It seems to be happening more than previous years," she said.

The trend . Patch first reported on layaway angels on December 16.  In recent days, stories of anonymous layaway payoffs have been reported from South Carolina to Iowa and Wisconsin to California. The epidemic of giving is also cheering families in .

Reports have also come from several Wal-Mart stores but more instances may be happening at Kmart because it is one of the few large discount stores that has offered layaway year-round for about 40 years.

"It's been an organic development," Shannell Armstrong, a spokeswoman for Sears Holdings Corp., which owns Kmart, . "We don't promote it. We're just trying to keep up with the reports that keep coming in."

Those reports have been increasing daily.

"This is just so heart-warming for these families during the holidays," Drozd said.

The woman who stopped at the Kmart on Tilghman Street on Monday and paid off four layaways told Drozd she just wanted the families to have "a very Merry Christmas." Drozd said many of the benefactors, who range in age, say they hope the families will "pay it forward," meaning that someday they choose to repay the good deed by doing something good for someone else.

Drozd said the layaways paid off have included delinquent accounts, in which the items were close to being put back on store shelves. 

She said the families helped will often thank her.

"It's not us," she tells them. "It's these angels coming in. We just get to be the messenger."