If the experts are right, there's a good chance that you got a gift card from someone this Christmas. According to the National Retail Federation as quoted in CNN Money, they expected that consumer would buy over $26 Billion (with a B!) worth of gift cards.
A couple of things occurred to me about gift cards. First, on average, you probably spend more on gift cards than you do for a gift. The reason is simple. If you buy Uncle Harry a sweater, he doesn't need to know that you're a Dollar Stretcher shopper and found it on sale. But if you hand him a gift card for $10, he knows exactly how much you spent. So, if you're like most folks, you'll spend a little more on the gift card.
The second thought was that the receiver often will make a purchase that's greater than the gift card. Uncle Harry wants to use all of the $20 gift card you gave him. He doesn't want to spend $15 on a CD and lose the balance. So he's going to buy two CDs for $30. The bottom line for the store? More sales.
One other thing gives me cause to wonder. If you give a gift card, you've limited where the receiver can shop. Wouldn't it be much more logical to give cash? Of course, you can't put cash on your charge card. At least not very easily. Charging a gift card is the easiest thing in the world.
So what's the solution? Well, you might want to consider talking to people you give gift cards to this year. They might be just as happy as you are to skip gift giving next year.
For those who you really want to give something, another possible solution is to begin shopping much earlier for those hard-to-buy-for people. If you start in the early fall, you'll have time to do something truly unique for them. That way you won't be tempted to solve the last minute problem with a gift card.
I'm sure that we'll continue to see a lot of gift cards in the future. But maybe a few of us can begin to limit their use to situations that truly call for them. And, although it wouldn't make much difference in the total number of gift cards, it would certainly be good for us!
