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Man Buys All Kmart's Stuff—for Charity

Kentucky's Rankin Paynter donates $200K worth of items
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted May 17, 2012 3:45 PM CDT
Man Buys All Kmart's Stuff—for Charity
Pedestrians pass a Kmart in New York.   (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

When his local Kmart was getting ready to close, a Kentucky man decided to buy all the store's stuff—and hand it to charity. While visiting the store to score some deals, Rankin Paynter asked what happened to all the unsold items; the clerk told him "power buyers" snap it up, USA Today reports.

Paynter knows times have been tough: The owner of a jewelry exchange, he often sees struggling people selling their valuables to make ends meet. So over the course of six hours, he bought up $200,000 worth of items. He gave it all to his county's community service office. "It's bad nowadays. I just told (the clerk) let's just give it away to charity," he told LEX18.com. (More Kmart stories.)

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