I think that’s a bit harsh. Sure the gift card is the gift that says, “I couldn’t be bothered with anything more than this for… you,” but lazy or insensitive? Surely it’s just apathetic.
Apathy, in the giving of a gift, to a person one purports to care about? Surely “lazy” is one of several words that would apply.
But Reyemile is actually saying that the gift card is slightly less apathetic than actual cash.
Have you no other interests?
I think people need to familiarize themselves with the phrase, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Be grateful you get anything, even if it’s a lame old giftcard. The person likes you enough to get you something, anything. That should mean something to you.
That being said I don’t make a practice of getting gift cards for my friends/family, but it has happened on occasion. Cash is even rarer but sometimes it is the most thoughtful gift. This bogus belief that a gift card or cash means you are apathetic and don’t know your friend very well is just stupid.
Yes, yes. This is the best view for the recipient to adopt. But does that make it valid for givers? Do you tell yourself, as you semi-randomly grab a gift card for somebody, “he should be glad I’m getting him anything”?
I think gift cards make a great deal of sense in certain very limited circumstances.
For example, from an adult to a child. There is an age (say, 10-your first job) when what you really want is not anything in particular, but having the power to choose. Someone giving you the exact thing you would have chosen is less satisfying than being able to go to the store and pick something out. Cash doesn’t have the same feel to it, for all the reasons mentioned above.
They also make sense when what you want to do is give someone money, but cash would be tacky: for example, I watched a friend’s dog one time when he was out of town for a week. He, of course, offered to pay me and I, of course, declined because it seems horribly tacky for a friend to charge a friend for a favor. He gave me a nice starbucks card as a thank-you. I appreciated it, but I would have been offended by cash. Illogical, I know, but social rules aren’t logical. If a kid makes a lot more money than their parents, they might want to help their parents out, but sending mom and dad a check is full-out hurtful: sending them a giftcard is sweet and thoughtful.
Gift cards for very small amounts are really nice as token gifts, like from a boss to an employee for going above and beyond, or from a student to a teacher for writing a recommendation letter, or for your mailman at Christmas: people have so much STUFF these days that giving stuff as a token is silly, but sometimes a token is called for.
That said, I do tend to think that two people exchanging giftcards to slightly different stores is really silly. I just don’t establish gift-giving relationships with people in order to avoid this.
However,
No. As I said I usually don’t even give gift cards, but when I do, it’s because I think the person will enjoy shopping/eating/whatevering at the place the gift card is good for. It’s never a semi-random thought.
And when I get a gift card, even if I think it was a semi-random thing (like a gift card to a fishing shop), I don’t think less of the person, don’t think they didn’t care or didn’t know me, or whatever. I would think they did their best that they could and I’d be thankful they felt like getting me anything.
Why should rogerbox be more satisfied with a gift that ties in with his fourth or fifth favorite interest than a gift card that relates directly to his favorite interest? After all, if the person buying the gift card gets it because they know that rogerbox is an electronics hobbyist and will use the card for that purpose, that’s hardly apathetic. It’s something that they know he will use and enjoy. What does it matter if the gift is a small piece of plastic or a large box of something that he may or may not end up using?
I hate 'em; giving or getting. So many stores have gift card racks/malls now that I think it’s less effort than to find an ATM to get cash.
If I get cash, it goes into the savings account towards what I like; bigger ticket items. When I get cards, I try to find something for the amount of the card so I’m neither wasting money (by not using all of the card) or spending my money to get something more than the cost of the card that I otherwise wouldn’t have purchased. Invariably I end up sitting on them, sometimes too long as a few have expired.
that’s my attitude exactly.
This last Christmas, my 12 year old (mentally about 8-9) asked for clothing and a bunch of little girly items. Other than ‘iPad’ and ‘iPhone’, those were the only things on her list.
As a 50 year old single man, there’s NO WAY I’m going shopping for clothing and girly things for my (physically small) niece.
She got a gift card for Target so she could buy what she wanted.
My 15 year old nephew asked for sweat pants. That was all. He got a gift card too. Buy your own damned clothing, then you get what you want.
In general, the only gift cards I give are to kids, because they will treat them like a precious commodity. The problem with giving gift cards to adults is they will often be filed in a drawer and forgotten about, or lost completely (which is apparently a huge money-maker for retailers).
As a parent, I’d be pissed off if you made me take my kid on a shopping trip to spend his birthday present. Planning a party is hassle enough.
Perhaps because it would be a surprise, something he might not have got around to getting for himself–or even known about.
I realize my last post did not make it clear that my children are at this point still hypothetical
And if it’s something he doesn’t want or need, possibly due to the buyer being mistaken about what the gift does or not knowing that rogerbox already has one? It’s still a better gift due to the sheer fact that it’s not a gift card, even if he would prefer the gift card? You don’t see anything illogical about that?
The act of giving gifts is not supposed to be hemmed in by some kind of byzantine set of rules in which the size and shape of a gift is more important than how the receiver feels about it. If someone is so anti-gift card that they believe it’s better to give something that the person doesn’t want rather than something they do want that just happens to be in the form of a plastic swipe-card, then I suspect that there’s an entirely different motivation at work in that situation, rather than just the standard, “Oh, gift cards are boring.”
You misunderstand. I’m not saying he must appreciate one thing more than another; I just offered one reason he might, in fact, turn out to. Of course that would require a savvy giver–not everyone can be so good. In some cases, IMO, the gift card might indeed be the best bet.
You’re right, we can’t all be as savvy as you. Too bad, my parents will just have to cope with the gift card I got them for the Vietnamese restaurant they’ve been wanting to try. Hopefully, they’ll be able to hide their disappointment.
Right – the gift card is from somewhere I know they like, but it’s either for an experience (dinner, etc.) or for something personal which they really need to pick out. For example, for the engagement party for a young couple from NYC I gave them gift cards to the movies. We can’t use them up here but I thought it’s something fun they could do in NY. If I am invited to the wedding I will make a handmade gift but that’s just because that’s my tradition.
I never pay for gas, because of gift cards. I give gift cards to myself. The grocery stores where I buy them give 30 gallons of free gas every time you get a certain number of points or $ off. There are certain stores I HAVE to shop at regular intervals. For example, I can only get my pet food at a specific store and I have to go there at least twice a month. So getting a $50 gift card for that store, when I know I have to go there anyway, isn’t really hindering my cash flexibility for the month.
And to address the OP idea of $100 for $100, and maybe being good deal if you got $100 for $97 or something, if I count the $100-120 in “free” gas that I get for so many gift card purchases (which I do, and I need/use the gas), then I pay around $88 for $100 in gift cards.
Another thing I just thought of, which I don’t do but many might benefit from, is rewards credit cards with high incentives for grocery store purchases. If one were to use his Grocery Store miles/rewards/rebate/whatever credit card to buy gift cards, then he could get free gas from the store plus rebates from the credit card.
You know someone likes to read but you don’t know specifically what types of books they like or what they’ve already read. You get them a Barnes & Noble gift card. You know someone likes music but not what types or what they already have. You get them an iTunes card.
Readers and music lovers can have picky tastes. Getting them a gift card allows for you to give them something they’ll actually want and enjoy.