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Why on gods green earth do people buy gift cards?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024
193 points (86.4% liked)
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They could be purchased en mass at a discount. The corporate gift card as a gift, might only cost 70%, and have a rebate if it's never used. Depending on your jurisdiction it may not count as income either, reducing HR burden. So it makes financial sense.
They're often sold at a discount to retail customers, to lock them in, a bet that they won't actually use it versus utility somebody gets from a discount. Just like mailing coupon/rebates
It is one of the more practical off-ramps for crypto, you can buy gift cards with crypto, then use those gift cards for real world needs.
In the domain of gifts, if somebody has a spending problem, or a dependency problem, and you want to make sure they buy something in a certain vertical, locked in money as a gift card to make sense. If you give a drunk $50, they're going to buy alcohol. If you give them a $50 gift card to bed bath & beyond, they might actually use it to improve their house
It can also be a form of virtue signaling, a $50 gift card to the air and space museum, or the science museum... Is both a gift of money, but an excuse to go to a new place and do a new thing.
I'm surprised this comment is at the bottom... It's the correct answer. Companies can offer or donate gift cards to employees (like during a team event). But if they offer cash, that works like a bonus and it's legally trickier.
I posted early, so i get sorted to the bottom by new. I had too much text so many people won't read it. If I wanted lots of karma I'd have a one or two sentence pithy zinger.
I tried to be accurate and complete, yet I still got downvoted! haha, that's lemmy for you.