The Kindness of Strangers

[PennyQuilts]

This is a lovely story about anonymous donors paying off layaway accounts for people, primarily at Kmart but also at other places. Layaway, for those people too young to remember, was how most of us paid for things prior to the widespread use of credit cards. Not that long ago, actually. Stores would allow customers to put down a deposit for items and pay them off over a period of months. In the meantime, the store would set the items back and, once paid for, the customer could take them home. It was a common way to pay for Christmas, birthdays or school clothes.

The dynamic involved in choosing an item and making regular payments over time before getting the item is completely different than using credit, which tends to encourage people to buy now, pay later - if you can. Plus, with interest, you end up paying interest payments, sometimes late fees, etc. Moreover, credit cards encourage impulse buying and spending more than you can afford.

It is inspiring to see good people trying to help people who are doing their best to handle their money responsibly but who may be down on their luck.

I especially liked this from the article:

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."

http://news.yahoo.com/anonymous-dono...221000605.html

[oneforone]

I wish people would do stuff like this year round. In my opinion you can make more of a difference by helping the people around you in your daily life then you can sending a check somewhere or giving it to someone on a street corner.

[FRISKY]

I wish people would do stuff like this year round. In my opinion you can make more of a difference by helping the people around you in your daily life then you can sending a check somewhere or giving it to someone on a street corner.

They do...but they do it anonymously for obvious reasons.

BTW, It has been exposed numerous times that many of the panhandlers on street corners are con artists.

[Just the facts]

I bought my first race track on lay-a-way when I was in the 3rd grade. My grandpa gave me a dollar a day for helping him around the house and it took me 6 weeks to earn the money. Every Saturday he would take me to the toy story to make my payment. Today parents buy it with a credit card and the child is bored with it in less than 6 weeks.

[PennyQuilts]

I'm glad to see layaway come back - it is a silver lining for bad economic times. I imagine as tough as it is, a lot of families may end up kind of liking scaling back on stuff and slowing things down. The ones who aren't too over extended, obviously, have a much easier time of it. I've had the wolf at the door and the debt collectors call. It is awful and I feel for the ones caught in that trap. But cutting back on spending and so forth, well, really that can be a good thing. Sometimes we get too busy and caught up in "things." They say having babies has really been cut back on due to the economy. If I were a young woman who lost her job, I would be tempted to take advantage of the time to do my child bearing while I could. Babies don't know when times are tough and recycling baby stuff from family and friends is a time honored and sensible tradition. But that's just me.