Thread: RANT: What the hell is the point of gift cards?

On my way into work this morning, I was listening to the radio, and a commercial came on for Walmart. They had their standard line up of ethnically and age diverse-sounding people saying things like "I'm gonna buy my favorite video game!" "I'm gonna get the latest tunes!" "I'm getting some really cheap off brand cereal!" "I think I'll pick up clothes that fall apart after being washed once".

It was a commercial for their gift card, which they described as "the thoughtful choice this holiday season". That doesn't make any sense to me (especially at Walmart). If you really don't have any idea what to get someone, just give them cash, for chrissakes. Gift cards sell for cash value, so there's no savings either way, and it's just more convenient for everyone involved.

First, getting someone a gift card forces them to shop at one place. If they find something similar at another store for a cheaper price, they're just SOL, since I doubt Circuit City will accept Best Buy gift cards. Also, you rarely get a chance to use the whole value of the gift card. Have you ever gone to a store and spent exactly $25? $50? It's possible, but really rare. Most places don't give change until you're under a dollar left on there or something equally pointless.

For some reason, people seem to think that giving cash isn't very thoughtful. That may be, I mean, you didn't go into a store and say "oh yeah I think Bobby might shop here, give me that $20 gift card that's so conveniently placed right next to the checkout line so I don't have to look for it". Cash has way more advantages than gift cards; it can be split up and spent however or wherever you want. It's pretty and green. Strippers don't take gift cards. It's just as easy for the people working to process, too.

In summation, if you're not really going to put any thought into gift-giving anyway, just give cash, it's at least as thoughtful as a gift card.

Companies love gift cards (aka gift vouchers).

1. People take a long time before spending them and the company earns interest off the money in the mean time.
2. People never spend them. They either lose them, they expire or they don't shop at the selected store. Company takes face value as pure profit. I would take a bet that this is surprisingly common.
3. As mentioned, people don't spend the exact amount. Either way, the company wins.
4. They force the consumer to spend at the selected store.

With all these advantages, you would think that gift cards would sell at a substantial discount. For obvious reasons they don't. Moral of the story: gift cards are a rip-off and a massive boon for companies.

Bah humbug: Gift cards that stop giving

I didn't even think about either of the first two, that's a good point.

Gangly whenever you post I hear it read by Homestar in my head, heh.

I did think of a good use for gift cards. They're a really easy way for people to shop at online only stores. Amazon's the only one of these I can think of right now where it might be preferable to do that over cash, since they carry pretty much everything under the sun and draw prices from a ton of different stores. A couple months ago I got a book there that had a cover price of $50. I paid, I think, $11 including shipping, brand new.

Here, we have several "gift tokens" which are for a type of item rather then for a particular shop. A "book token" can be used in any book shop which is a member of the scheme, (most of them), same is true of a "music token", they can be used in most "record" shops which these days also sell DVD, some still VHS.

I guess that makes a little more sense, but I still don't like the idea that you're locked into buying a specific type of thing.

How does redemption for those work? Is it just like 1 token = 1 book, regardless of price?

Right, I realize that, but at least if they buy you something you'll hate, they at least, y'know, thought about what to get you.

With gift cards, they're usually right near or next to the checkout lane, so 90% of the time the person just picks it up and says "hey, now I'm done shopping!" At least with cash you're a little more flexible.

>>> How does redemption for those work?

Works like your do. You buy them to a certain value. The other objections still apply, but you are not linked to a particular shop/chain.

Visa is accepted pretty much everywhere, but it'd be better if there a way to combine the remaining value with your other money.

>remaining value with your other money.

at almost every store you can pay for stuff using a couple credit cards, or a credit card and some cash, or a check and a credit card.

Cash registers are set up that way. FME