Pep Customers Getting Heartwarming Surprises - Strangers Are Paying Off Their Lay-bys

In late 2019, one man paid off every single outstanding lay-bys in a PEP store in Mossel Bay.

People then started challenging others to do the same on ImStaying, which led to the creation of the PEP Lay-by Buddy initiative in June 2020. Since then, more than 46 200 donor-funded vouchers have been sent to customers to pay off their PEP lay-bys.

Contributions by Lay-By Buddies and PEP totalled R3.2 million by the end of 2024, with most donors choosing to pay off lay-bys of school clothing.

Western Cape residents have been the most generous lay-by 'buddies', with 37 of contributions being allocated to accounts in that province, followed by Gauteng 24, KwaZulu-Natal 13 and the Eastern Cape 11.

A few days ago, a message from a mother who went into a PEP store to pay some money into the lay-by account shed opened to fund her childrens school uniforms, and was told it was fully paid by a stranger, was shared on the Facebook group The Village.