No to "Gift" Cards

A. Unabashed Pacifist:

WWJD? What He did not do was carry a weapon. WWJD? Act nonviolently.

B. Unabashed Christian:

Holy One,

“Life is suffering; then you die.” It’s a statement and a perspective with limited truth. It reminds me a lot of the idea that there is something called “original sin.” There are alternatives that resonate with greater truth for me, as in “original blessing,” or “life holds suffering and joy, simple pleasures and great satisfaction, love and wonder; so live it to the fullest.”

The negative outlook strikes me as similar to childish whining, a complaint against the universe, a challenge to the way you created things, a denial of life’s possibilities, or the stuck-in-the-mud path chosen instead of the clear road to enjoyment. Just accept and forgive what we don’t like. Our idea of perfection was never in the cards, the stars, or your mind.
Amen

C. Un-quoting Jesus:

“Did you get some tofu for tonight’s supper, Nathaniel? You know John won’t eat the lamb.”

[Never said it.]

D. Blog: No more “gift” cards

Why from now on I’ll give cash instead of “gift” cards, you might wonder. I got to thinking about those cards when they started popping up everywhere, even my local gas station. The grocery store sells them, the drug store, the department store. Go into a big box store and they sell these cards for other big box stores. “What’s up with all these cards?” I asked myself.

Here’s what I came up with, after absolutely no research:
-- If, say, Staples sells a card for Applebee’s, Staples receives a percentage of that purchase from Applebee’s. Okay. What else?
-- I buy my son a card for Best Buy, say for $25. Some time later, he goes shopping at Best Buy and picks out a CD that costs about $20. Well, there’s another $5 on the card. What does he do? Same thing I would do: he finds something else to buy so that remainder isn’t wasted. My “gift” to him becomes an additional purchase he feels he must make at Best Buy. The gift that keeps giving – to Best Buy. More.
-- Suppose he doesn’t want to use my gift at Best Buy. Nope, sorry, can’t redeem it for cash.
-- Suppose he waits too long to use my gift. Sorry, unlike my cash gift, this one has an expiration date.
-- Okay then, some time after his birthday, say a month, he goes to Best Buy and manages to purchase something he wants that costs exactly $25. Pretty nice, right?
-- Well... but what was the money to buy the card doing during that month? Suppose Best Buy puts that into an interest bearing account and gets $.50 (I know, pretty high interest, but you get the idea). Do you think they credit any of that interest to his card? Nah. Suppose instead I’d given him some cash and he put it in his interest-bearing account until he was ready to spend it. Better for him, right?
-- So, I’m thinking this “gift” card to my son is more like a loan to Best Buy. They use the money from me until my son wants to use that money. Why not just give him the money??
-- This loan to Best Buy has some unusual characteristics. They might not be required to pay it back if, say, he misplaces the card. Or they might not have to pay all of it back if, say, his CD purchase costs $24.50 and he’s not interested in using the remaining $.50. And, Best Buy does not pay any interest on this loan I’ve made to them, neither to me nor to my son.
I’d like a loan on those terms, too. Know anybody who’ll give me one?

-- Or perhaps, instead of a loan, I might think of it as a reverse credit card. I give Best Buy credit, but they don’t necessarily have to make payment to my son until he demands it (or some of it), and the terms of this credit card don’t say anything about 18.9% interest on outstanding balances or minimum payment or payment due date.

Think I could get Best Buy (or any other business offering “gift” cards) to give me a credit card with similar terms?

I think gift cash is the way to go this Christmas.