Popular Gift Meets with Mixed Reaction

Run date: November 14, 2010

By Eve Mitchell
Business + Technology, Contra Costa Times

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Fran Bagnasco is not a big gift card fan, although she does buy them sometimes. “If you get a gift card, it feels like somebody has run out of time or hasn’t taken the time,” said the Walnut Creek resident.

That complaint has been heard many times before by Shelley Hunter, a Danville resident who runs the website giftcardgirlfriend.com.

“If you have a traditional gift, you have to open it in front of somebody, and then there’s a moment of ‘oh, that’s so cute, or ‘oh, I love that color’ and it’s something to talk about. With a gift card … there is a kind of a moment of not knowing what to say because there is nothing to look at. You are both staring at the plastic card, and the only thing to look at is the price,” she said. “It can be a little awkward on the delivery end, even though the end result makes everyone happy.”

Her website is designed to help people find ways to not feel guilty about gift-card giving.

Say you buy someone a gift card for a store that specializes in cooking accessories. Consider including one of your mother’s recipes or perhaps a cooking utensil to go with the card, Hunter advised.

“The fear of being impersonal is gone from both sides,” she said.

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