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Tuesday, December 21, 2021

The "Gift Card Catastrophe" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Trying to figure what to buy for family members for Christmas.  Always seems to be a problem during the Christmas holiday season, since I have no idea what my children and grandchildren might need or might already have.  We do talk on the phone about ideas for gifts, but as usual, I don't write it down and by the time I get around to writing it down, I have forgotten exactly what we decided upon.  So, over the years I have started to give gift certificates or gift cards as a gift for just about everyone.  That way I don't forget sizes or colors of gifts and don't have to worry about wrapping the gifts after I have brought them home.  I'm absolutely sure that many of you do the same thing as I do.  Not necessarily cards or certificates for everyone, but I'll bet you buy a few gift cards or certificates for the "hard-to-buy-for" relative or friend.  Got me thinking about when stores first decided to offer gift cards or certificates.  I don't remember ever getting a gift card or certificate when I was a child or even a teenager and that goes back to the 1950s.  So when did the first gift cards or certificates arrive in stores.  The earliest I could find was when department stores began to offer "gift certificates" in the 1930s.  Clerks in the store were directed to keep the gift certificates behind store counters at the time so they could sell them only to select customers upon request.  At the time the gift certificates were said to be a paper cash equivalent.  I wasn't around in the 1930s and both my parents are no longer living so I can't ask them if they remember giving "gift certificates" as Christmas gifts.  I did find that in the 1970s, the ever-innovative McDonald's introduced its Christmas gift certificate program which created quite the buzz.  


Wasn't long before other restaurants and merchants began to do the same.  The only problem that occurred was that the paper certificates took time to write out and redeem since it had to be done by the manager of the establishment.  They had to track the sequentially numbered certificates to make sure that no one was making their own and trying to use them.  Then along came the color copier and retailers were left to figure out a way to fight fraud, but still allow customers to buy a convenient way to give a gift to a friend or relative.  It was back in 1994 that Neiman Marcus first tried to sell the plastic gift cards, but it was Blockbuster who first displayed the gift cards in their stores.  Then along came the Mobil gas card, which initially offered prepaid phone value provided by MCI.  Kmart was next to introduce the Kmart Cash Card, which in the early generations provided prepaid phone time with AT&T.  Later Kmart and Mobile dropped this feature, as it was not profitable for them.  Then the Kmart Cash Card was the first replacement for cash returns when a shopper didn't have a receipt for a gift.  The practice of giving a cash card in place of cash for non-receipted returns is commonplace today with most merchants.  Can you think of any big retailers that doesn't do the same thing today?  Most places will try to keep your money one way or another.  So, if you haven't purchased all your Christmas gifts as of yet, maybe a gift card or certificate may be the way to go.  Let your friend or relative pick out what they want so they don't have to return what you may think they should like.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

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