Gift cards- it's the least you can do....

If my wallet was stolen tomorrow, I wouldn't miss much. I have no cash. But the gift cards that the criminal would inherit would take a few days to spend. My secret wallet compartment contains gift cards to Starbucks, Old Navy, Williams-Sonoma, Dairy Queen, Blockbuster, Home Depot, and Best Buy. And some more Starbucks cards. Like 5 of them. Funny how you mention to someone that you're a coffee drinker and a Starbucks card falls into your lap every holiday. I hate Starbucks. But if you really knew me, you'd know that. If you really knew the cheap and tawdry me , you'd buy a perverted coffee mug and the 3 pound bag of Columbian roast at Costco.

I know, it's the thought that counts. Remember after September 11th happened, and everyone got out their old, tattered flags and hung them high? I couldn't find a flag to buy online, so I bought a cheap flag that some guy was running off a press in his garage. We were all wanting to show our support and our love for our country. Someone at the time scoffed at that, saying "it's the least you can do". Gift cards are like that. It's a genuine attempt to be generous and kind when you don't know what else to do.

At Scot's office, gift cards have become the preferred gift of choice for Christmas gift exchange. When the employees in Scot's team were asked to give 3 ideas for their "secret Santa" gift, people gave the names of 3 stores where they would like to receive a gift card. It's pretty obvious this is an attempt to head off the cheap chocolates and tacky Christmas ornaments so many of us have received at gift exchanges. Damn it if I haven't been the spendy one who gets screwed with the $3 gift before. But Scot said it best; everyone might as well throw a 10 spot in a hat and pass it around and take one. A gift card lacks imagination. Why bother. But it makes us feel better to know we opened our wallets and gave to another person.

At the end of the work year, I got 2 gift cards from a client. One was for, you guessed it - Starbucks. And the other one was from Dairy Queen. One out of 2 isn't so bad. And when I thought about it I realized that the person who gave it to me knows me pretty well. Not great, but pretty well. Three girlfriends took me out to dinner last month for my birthday. Another girl was celebrating her birthday as well. We both got gift cards. She got one to Nordstom. So not me. Mine was for Old Navy. Bingo!