Gift Card Rant

We have all heard the American Express commercials where the snotty little girl asks if the guy has anything in his shop that “anyone like me would, you know, ever consider buying” and it annoys me.

The reason it annoys me is because it is a gift card. I have no problem with them as stocking stuffers or as incidental gifts, but when you give one as the main gift, you are telling the person, I don’t want to have to spend a second on trying to figure out what you may like.

The Idea that a gift card is a main gift takes any personal thought, any connection, any thought out of the gift. I have never got a gift I didn’t like because I knew the person who got it for me thought I would like it. That they cared to pick it out was a statement.

When Gift certificates started, they were impersonal, but at least the person had to know what kind of store your gift certificate would need to be from, so if you were a sports nut a sporting goods store, etc.

Amex has now taken that out of the equation. With the AMEX Gift Card, you can take it anywhere they are accepted. This is good because you have flexibility to go anywhere, but also the giver no longer has to even think about what you want when they go to buy it.

To me these cards just say your not important enough to me to have to think about you for even a few moments.

If you are planning to give a gift card this year, please think about what your telling the person you are giving it to.


Vulture 6