Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Gift Cards for Christmas. . . . Bad Idea this year

Normally, I'm a big fan of gift cards. One, they are easy to buy and in my home town, if I purchase the gift card(s) at Giant Eagle, I get $0.10 off a gallon of gas for every $50 spent. Anyway, that's another story. Two, getting a gift card as a gift let's me purchase something I want or need. Then I follow-up with a letter letting the person know what I purchased with their gift card to me.

So with both sides of the gift card transaction being a good deal, why stay away from them this Christmas? Ah, great question. Thus my post.

As we are all well aware, our economy stinks right now and there's big projections that this Christmas shopping season will be a bust for retailers. If this ends up being so, a lot of retailers won't be in business next year.

If you happened to give or received a gift card from a retailer who's no longer in business, your gift card is worth Zero. Think this can't happen? Just last month a local restaurant that was in business for well over 15 years was open for business one day and was closed the next. So it does happen.

So, If you were thinking of getting me a gift card this Christmas, you can just give me cash. (Just kidding.) But stick to the largest of retailers like Amazon.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi,
I think cash gifting is the best gift that you can offer for your loved ones. I am planning to send cash gift for all my loved ones this Christmas.

Unknown said...

The cash gifting business, like any other business, will require some investment, regardless of the fact whether it’s an offline or online business. This start-up capital is required. So what exactly is cash gifting? It’s a program that is meant to enhance the lives of both the initiator and the gift giver.

Todd C said...

Mozart,

I like the points you make. Thanks for the comments.

Todd