Running a gold and silver buying business has given Rankin Paynter a front-row seat to the desperation in his Kentucky town.

So after he bought the entire contents of a Kmart that was closing, he decided the best place for the $200,000 worth of mostly winter clothes, shoes and boots was in the homes of needy families.

“I purchased it to make a little bit of money, but then I told my wife, ‘We don’t really need the money.’ There are so many needy families in our area, it’s bad out there,” Paynter told the Star on Friday.

Clark County Community Services is sorting and stacking Paynter’s surprise gift with an eye on its Christmas “Operation Happiness” when it distributes food and clothing to 1,400 families in one day.

“This will be the first time we have enough coats and gloves for everybody,” said charity director Judy Crowe . “We’ll give it out until it’s gone.”

Paynter not only donated the entire store liquidation, he rented a building for two months’ storage while the charity sorts through its bounty.

“What’s remarkable is that it’s a donation without any string. He didn’t say, ‘but,’ or ‘if,’” said Crowe.

Paynter had gone into the going-out-of-business Kmart in his Winchester hometown to buy shelves and a safe for his own company when he got the idea to buy the whole store. He registered as a power buyer first.

“It took six and a half hours to run it all through the cash registers” after the store shut for the final time at 6 p.m. on May 6, he said.

“Then it took six hours to load it onto truck and another day to load it in the warehouse.”

He’s originally figured he could clear $40,000 reselling the inventory to a flea market before he had second thoughts.

“I grew up poor and I know what poor means,” Paynter said. “I see the women with the little kids who come in to me. They’re selling off their little gold chains, their silver chains, their little diamond rings, whatever they have left.”

Hard times have even hit Palm Beach, Fla., where Paynter and his wife Joetta spend winters, and he donates to an arthritis charity.

“Even the rich are tightening their belts. But you don’t have to be rich to help. If everybody would give a dollar to charity, think of how much money they would have. The charities are running out of money.”

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Paynter is still glad he could help Winchester’s needy but he’s reluctantly rethinking his generosity now.

“There’s a problem with giving. I’m getting phone calls from all over the country from people wanting money who say they’re going to come see me. It’s actually gotten scary.”