Tuesday, November 13, 2007

A lucrative (and legal) racket

That's the gift card industry.

Gift card sales are expected to reach $100 billion this year, but Consumer Reports says more than one in four recepients don't redeem them.

"It's like flushing $8 billion down the toilet," said Tod Marks, a senior editor at Consumer Reports, who dubbed the cards a "win-win" for retailers....of the 27% who didn't redeem the full value of their cards last season, nearly a third indicated they "forgot about it" while 35% said they "have not found anything" they wanted to buy. In addition, nearly six in 10 indicated they simply didn't have the time to redeem the card.


They sure are easy to buy, though. No more frettin and sweatin about what to buy so-and-so for Christmas.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I tried it once as a Christmas gift for my husband. He gave it back to me for my birthday. I gave it back to him for his birthday and so on until we lost it or it expired or something.

My children, however, have no problem spending plastic money.