The Dilemma of Gift Cards

Remember when gift certificates were all the rage? Restaurants, hair salons, clothing stores? It was exciting to give someone a day of pampering and a day of choices. Didn't know exactly what to give someone for a gift - let them pick it out themselves. Then technology and time moved forward and everything became more digitized. Now it's all about the gift cards. Some gift cards come in packages; dinner AND a movie, some are good for more than one restaurant or apparel store. Gift cards can make life easy (for the buyer and sometimes for the recipient).

A lot of places will offer incentives; buy multiple gift cards and get a coupon or small gift card for yourself, buy your gift cards in bulk at Costco or Sam's Club and get a discount, buy your gift cards at Kroger and you can earn gas points (sometimes even 2x or 4x the value). Yes, society makes it REAL easy to shop - what the heck, you can even purchase gift cards online and never leave the comfort of your laptop and pajamas.

My mother always had a problem giving gift cards as gifts. Sure, she loved the whole wrapping and presentation process of the package, but truth be told I think she also liked picking out the gifts. She would put a lot of thought into it and often start months in advance. Unfortunately, sometimes what SHE thought was the perfect gift for you wasn't necessarily something you would like or want to be seen in, lol. But the thought and the gesture were there. Eventually we would convince her that it would make her life a little easier and people could get what they wanted. After all, you can still find creative ways to wrap a gift card.

But, then there is the issue that recipients can lose the gift cards or just put them something place and forget that they have them. Or they have them at home, but not with them when they are shopping or out when they could actually use them. Sometimes, gift cards are received with enthusiasm and spent the way they were meant to be spent. Other times they are re-gifted. Other times they collect dust and sit in that special place everyone has, because for some odd reason some of us feel like we are being too frivolous when we use them, lol. Silly huh?

Yes, human nature can be just as unpredictable as gift choices sometimes. But since we are now in November and 'pre-' Black Friday sales are already starting to show up it's just one more thing for us consumers to contemplate.

Thoughts? 
Any stories of gift card mishaps that you can share with the rest of us?