Gift card sales way down this year.

[moneysense]

With the economy being what it is, people are looking for better ways to give gifts, be it for the holidays, birthdays whatever.

During this holiday season, less people were buying gift cards and using the cash that would have gone for the cards to take advantage of the many "deep cuts" that were available for merchandise.

Say someone would have spent $100 for a gift card, instead, they took the money to the stores and bought merchandise on which there were deep discounts, making a $100 gift only costing $25. This was a savings of $75 for them, and money that could be used to buy a second and even third gift instead of using the whole $100 for a gift card.

Plus, there was the worry that the retailers that they bought the cards from might file bankruptcy which would jeopardize the value of their gifts of a gift card.

This is bad news for retailers even into the new year because gift cards arent recorded as sales until they are redeemed. Plus, there could be less people redeeming the cards which could also hurt future sales.

[carol b]

I myself did buy gift cards for my kids. I bought walmart gift cards as I don't see them going anywhere anytime soon. I also bought Visa gift cards as they can be used anywhere for anything.

The only thing that bothered me was that the Visa had to be paid for seperately from my other purchases. I was going to purchase a second one when I finished my shopping but didn't want to make peopld wait or write a second check for the purchase.

[dollardaze]

I can understand people's reluctance to buy gift cards at this time, since so many stores are going out of business. Some of the most popular stores in our area have closed their doors, which is a sad situation for the employees as well as the shoppers that frequented these businesses.