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Gift Certificates
By You | December 27, 2007
When trying to give this an eyeball rating of some sort, I found it more difficult than any other product or service I’ve thus far reviewed. Mainly, I think, because there are so many pluses and minuses to the giving of a gift certificate, that it is difficult to come up with an ultimate, definitive conclusion regarding their goodness or badness.
On the plus side, we have the convenience factor. You don’t have to wring your hands in angst for hours and hours trying to think of the perfect gift. Rather, you just have to think of a store or restaurant your giftee might enjoy. Gift cards to many store are now even sold in my local supermarket and drugstores, so you needn’t even visit the actual store for one. There is also, of course, internet ordering. Easy as pie indeed.
There are also bank or credit card gift cards nowadays. While this takes all thought process away completely, I really wouldn’t recommend them, with perhaps the exception of a business gift. These cards show SUCH a lack of thought that you might as well just stick a $20 in an envelope and call it a day. Not cool.
Indeed, many think that the gift certificate, even if well chosen from a store to suit the recipient, is plain thoughtless, and hence a big minus. There’s also the added nervousness of the person knowing exactly how much you spent on them. With a gift, unless they’re like my father and look up the cost of everything, you can fudge how much you’ve spent.
You’ll have to balance this scale for yourself. Take into account the recipient, your relationship with the recipient, and perhaps most of all your gift giving history with the recipient. While I would not normally suggest, for example, a gift certificate for Dad’s birthday, Dad knows after so many years I’m tapped out of ideas and enjoys his steak house gift card just as much as anything I could think up, and he still finds it thoughtful. It’s that kind of balancing that’s necessary. The only sure thing is this: proceed with caution.
Topics: Anything Goes |
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