Gift cards make great stocking stuffers — just as long as you don’t stuff them in a drawer and forget about them after the holidays.
Americans are expected to spend nearly $30 billion on gift cards this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation. Restaurant gift cards are the most popular, making up one-third of those sales.
Most of those gift cards will be redeemed. Paytronix, which tracks restaurant gift card sales, says around 70% of gift cards are used within six months.
But many cards — tens of billions of dollars’ worth — wind up forgotten or otherwise unused. That’s when the life of a gift card gets more complicated, with expiration dates or inactivity fees that can vary by state.
I think it depends on where the card is from. I love an Amazon gift card because I can always find something there, but my aunt had someone buy her an Aritzia gift card, which is a store for very young women mostly and almost all the sizes are extra small, and she’s 85. She calls it “the store for girls who like to show off their.behinds”.
She ended up taking me shopping with the card, but I’m 49 so all I found were leggings, and that’s useful but it’s really dumb to buy someone something that’s so age focused.