I was reading through some of this week’s Sunday Magazine from the NY Times when I came across this article talking about a new kind of “functional” gift card, where gift cards are simultaneously a gift card as well as being some cheap, silly, gadget.
On the subject of this latest “innovation” in stupid things to give people as gifts, I don’t really have anything to say. I imagine the author of that column is right, in that the real value is how these silly gadgets are great for the issuing company on account of the conversations they presumably will go on to inspire, in addition to the usual gift card gains for issuers.
However, since we are in the midst of yet another crassly commercial holiday season (though perhaps less so on account of this whole recession/depression/end-of-era situation), I thought I’d take this opportunity to rehash a bit on the subject of gift cards.
Mostly, I am confused. I am confused because in a culture where it is generally frowned upon to give a gift of cash, how is it that these gaudy pieces of plastic have become acceptable instead? (As an aside, were gift certificates held in the same regard in the past as gift cards are now?) Much has already been said about the deadweight loss of Christmas. A couple years ago, James Surowiecki wrote a column in the New Yorker titled The Gift Right Out which closed with “Calculating the deadweight loss of Christmas gifts is a coldhearted project, but it leads to a paradoxically warmhearted conclusion: the fact of giving may be more important than what you give.”
Certainly, there are plenty more reasons not to give gift card, most of which don’t apply to cash. The issuer might go out of business, there might be some additional requirements on how or when it can be used, or whatever else. The main drawback of cash, I feel, applies equally to a gift card in that it betrays a fundamental failure to have found a nice gift. Is it such a strong requirement that we find a gift to give to those people in our life that we can not bear not to, and at the same time will not suffer committing the faux pas of giving cash? Is this what leads to gift cards?
There are many times when I can not think of a nice gift. Personally, in these cases I usually try and make something that doesn’t involve a lot of thought or effort, for example, some cookies. Perhaps some of the gauche-ness associated with the gift of cash is that it feels like putting a value on a relationship? I’m not really sure. However in those cases where I couldn’t think of a gift or give something more considered, what is it about gift cards that makes them so much more acceptable than cold, hard, cash money?
As for myself, even if you won’t likely catch me giving cash any time soon, I will never decline the gift of some bin ladens (even just one!), or any other denomination of easily spendable bills. Actually, being the strict observer of etiquette that I am, I probably won’t decline most any gifts either, but that’s neither here nor there.
What kinds of things do you guys get as gifts for people you’re not sure what to get? Books are another frequent backup option for me, though even that hasn’t been working out so great lately because I haven’t been reading enough and I try to avoid giving a book to somebody if I don’t think they’ll enjoy it, which is much easier to guess at when I’ve read the book myself.
Oh, and, happy Hanukkah.
