Secret Santas pay $484,000 for Walmart layaway shoppers in three states

Walmart Inc. customers in three different states- Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania- had their balances on holiday layaway accounts paid off by secret Santas.

Anonymous donors gave Christmas gift to Walmart's shoppers in three states by paying off their layaway orders set aside with the retailer.

Walmart's layaway service has been available since August 28. The service requires the customers to make down payments of $10 or 10% of their purchases and allows them to make the final payments by December 14.

The customers get the goods they purchased when they make the final payment at the same store where the layaway order initiated.

Walmart's spokesperson Wyatt Jefferies said that customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida were shocked to find out their layaway orders had been paid off by anonymous donors and the total amount of donations added up to $484,000, ABC News reported.

Wyatt Jefferies said in a statement that the anonymous payoffs of the customers layaway items have reminded people of the amazing things people will do to support each other. He said that the company is proud to be a small part of these random acts of kindness.

In Ohio, the Secret Santas had visited two Walmart stores. According to USA Today, the store in Steelyard Commons in Cleveland had about $70,000 layaway orders paid by the anonymous donor. While Walmart store in Lorain had about $36,000. The anonymous donor paid a total of more than $106,000 in the state.

Walmart store in Cleveland said that the mystery donor wanted to do something special on his birthday by giving the donations, as reported in the Daily Mail .

Lorain's store manager Beverly Vargo said that the donation has been a positive and exciting experience for employees and customers.

Walmart's spokesperson also confirmed with store managers at the Chiefland Supercenter and Lake City Supercenter in Gainesville, Florida, that a total of $200,000 layaway orders were paid off by the same anonymous donor on Monday. The Secret Santa paid off $100,000 orders at each store in the state.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, a local businessman who calls himself "Santa B" paid off about $180,000 at Walmart stores in Harrisburg and Mechanicsburg. The "Santa B" also donated about $50,000 to Walmart shoppers in Pennsylvania last year.

Mechanicsburg's store manager Steven Myers said that the "Santa B" wants everyone to have a Merry Christmas and the "Santa" said it's way of giving back to the community and neighbors.

Walmart also confirmed some smaller payments totalling several thousand dollars also have been received from the Secret Santas.

Walmart stores contact customers by telephone if their layaway accounts have been paid off. The company said that sometimes the customers donate to other layaway accounts in turn.