Gift cards, that is. Unfortunately, millions of consumers are doing just that every year after receiving gift cards for stores where they rarely shop. Everyone knows that gift cards are the ideal solution for the holidays.
We all have that one friend who’s impossible to shop for because they seemingly have it all. Maybe it’s a relative whom you don’t know all that well. Sometimes you’re just too busy to hit the mall and pick out something unique and specific.
The answer to all of these gift-giving problems is a gift card. It’s the perfect present that leaves the recipient with a multitude of choices as they can go pick out something you know they’ll love.
Most of us are pretty excited about getting a gift card for the holidays except for when it’s from a store in which we never shop.
You can easily spend a lot of money at Amazon but when you’re limited to spending $50 with a retailer that doesn’t have a lot to offer your specific needs or interests, then a gift card doesn’t do much good as a valuable holiday gift, now does it?
So now what do you do? Walk in and try to find something, anything, that you can put your gift card towards just to get something out of it?
That sounds like more of a hassle than it’s worth and, at the end of the day, you’re not even satisfied with what you purchased.
But you’ll get around to doing that some other time. You’ve got too much on your plate right now to start searching through a website or store shelves trying desperately to cash in a gift card that just doesn’t have much appeal.
So you toss it into a drawer or slip it into one of the pockets of a wallet or purse and forget all about it in a few days. Even though this card is good as cash, you’re at a loss as to how you want to spend it.
That’s good money going to waste and the only party who benefits here is the business that sold the gift card. They made their money and now it’s up to you to get something of value.
If you don’t, well it’s free profit for that retailer. Profit that adds up to around $65 billion dollars a year in gift card sales. Experts say that nearly 18% of those gift cards are going to end up unused and all but forgotten.
Retailers love it when gift cards go unused because that improves their bottom line. Why do you think they try to sell so many of them around the…
