193

Why on gods green earth do people buy gift cards? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by weeeeum@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

120 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Utterly stupid little things, its money that is less useful in EVERY situation and expires! Even at the store where you can use it, what do you do with the money that's leftover but too little to spend? Especially at expensive places, you could very well end up with 10-20$ OF YOUR OWN MONEY, that you can't even use!

I was given a dunkin giftcard for volunteering at a repair cafe. First of all I'm on a diet but secondly I stuffed it in my wallet so quickly I completely forgot about it. The day I remember and go through the trouble of attending such a wretched establishment I was told it expired after I finished giving my order! After such bother to try to use this cursed thing I refuse to return fruitless from my endeavors so I paid with my own cash.

It is now, sulking into my hashbrowns and Boston cream do I realize I am now poorer, fatter and fucking miserable. FUCK gift cards.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

There's a certain something to giving people cash versus a gift card.

For one, cash today is almost an inconvenience, a lot of places don't accept cash.

The other element to it is that gift cards need to be used for specific things, while cash is often seen as something to just toss in a bank account and use for necessities or forget about. If the goal of the gift-giver is for the recipient to treat themselves to something, a gift card helps set some limits. Or if the goal is to get something related to someone's hobby but you don't know enough about what to get them, the gift card is an option.

I don't hate getting cash as a gift, but I am going to be honest that it is not going to get spent on anything nice. It's going to rent and groceries and whatever is left gets tossed into savings.

I'm not much of a gift card giver, but there have been a few times where I gave Steam gift cards as a gift for friends who are into games but I don't know exactly what they want.

[-] bassomitron@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

I have rarely encountered places that don't accept cash. The only places I've seen signs that state no cash are smaller businesses and/or street merchants/vendors.

Regardless, I agree with the spirit of your comment. I rarely use cash anymore simply because carrying it around is inconvenient. You have to know ahead of time exactly how much something is going to cost and then when you get coins back, that's doubly more inconvenient/annoying.

Ultimately, OP's post is a little melodramatic. Gift cards are meant to be more personal, although in the specific context they wrote, it does feel a bit half-hearted ("Thanks for helping, here's a random gift card I found in my wallet that I never used!").

this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024

193 points (86.4% liked)

Asklemmy

44148 readers

1683 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS