Hard Times: Gift Cards Are Used For Cash, Necessities

CNBC ^ | 12/30/2008 | Staff

[Red in Blue PA]

Most consumers use these sites to get cash—though usually at less than the gift card's face value—or to swap for other gift cards that can be used to buy food and other necessities. But others are approaching shoppers directly, gift cards in hand.

I experienced this firsthand while scouring the stores for bargains a few days after Christmas. A woman approached me in a department store, asking if I could use a $25 store gift card to buy the sweater I was holding in return for cash. She said she had recently lost her job and needed the money.

When I told her my item wasn't that expensive, she found someone else to split the card with me so she could get back the full $25. After we completed the transaction at the register, she thanked me profusely, then asked, "Do you know anyone who's hiring?"

[YdontUleaveLibs]

If you know someone that is that hard up for money for food get them a Walmart card, they have a huge grocery section.

[AntiKev]

"Consumers are just not confident," Whalin said. "They're afraid to spend money."

And the media is complicit in creating this decline in consumer confidence.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

A woman approached me in a department store, asking if I could use a $25 store gift card to buy the sweater I was holding in return for cash. She said she had recently lost her job and needed the money.

I'd bet the farm that this story is a complete lie, fabricated as part of the MSM theme for the end of the Bush presidency: "We're in the Second Great Depression"

[Red in Blue PA]

I disagree. Much of the wealth that was there never really existed, as evidence by all o fhte failures occurring like a domino effect.

The USA is a house of cards.

[Red in Blue PA]

Denial isn’t just a river.....

[pgkdan]

I’m not buying this story. It has the ring to me of pure bull.

[Red in Blue PA]

So all is swell in the US economy?????

[FrankR]

I don't believe it either. Who, in this day and time, would buy a "gift card" from a total stranger without somehow proving that it was still good.

Shoplifters go into stores all the time and help themselves to the (uncredited) gift cards hanging on racks everywhere...doesn't mean they've been charged up.

This is just more leg-tingling drama from MSNBC.

[MarkeyD]

What the media won’t report is how the Democrat’s energy plan (or lack thereof) helped to force up energy prices and thus change American’s car buying habits. To have the housing market and the auto industry crash at the same time is too much. What’s next?

[KarlInOhio]

"Consumers are just not confident," Whalin said. "They're afraid to spend money."

And the media is complicit in creating this decline in consumer confidence.

I suffer from extreme Schadenfreude about how hard the economy is hitting the press. After years of the reports on "the Worst economy since Herbert Hoover ate babies", I'm glad to see that the economic sharks are eating the press first.

[KarlInOhio]

Who, in this day and time, would buy a "gift card" from a total stranger without somehow proving that it was still good.

From the article: "After we completed the transaction at the register...". She did make sure it was good.

[pgkdan]

No all is not swell but I don't believe that this woman walked up to this reporter and conducted the transaction he described. It's bullsh*t...it stinks from a mile away.

If you've been fired from your job it might look like we're in a depression...might...but otherwise we are not in the second great depression. That's bull.

[pgkdan]

All of these horrible stories are intended to stain Bush as the worst president ever. Period. As soon as 0 is inaugurated the coverage will be completely centered on waht a wonderful job the new administration is doing fixing the mess Bush left behind.

[Russ]

"So all is swell in the U.S. economy?????"

Of course not but it also isn't as dire as the perception being given. The doom and gloom "nabobs of negativism" will be cutting down on their rhetoric after Jan. 20th. Later this spring you will rarely read bad economic news and the "messiah" will have singlehandedly turned around consumer confidence. Just watch how this is played out...

[weegee]

Of course, you don’t KNOW if that card is good that you buy from the stranger in the mall. It could be depleated or stolen (inactive).

[EBH]

Fraudulent cards?

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I'm not saying that times aren't getting worse. I'm saying that my gut reaction is that this story is a fabrication. I have never had this happen to me and I have never heard of anyone doing it or having a complete stranger ask them to buy a gift card from them. If we've learned anything over the past 6 or 7 years, its that reporters simply make up stories. Its about the theme—that we're in a Depression. This story conjures up images of desperate people doing anything to get food and necessities. If I were betting on whether it is true versus the reporter lied to make the story more vivid, I'd bet that the reporter lied.

[weegee]

If the Mexicans come here to do the jobs that no one wants to do (like farm labor) what do they do when there are no crops to harvest?

And what keeps this woman from being able to do such work?

I realize that kitchens are closed shops if you don’t speak Spanish these days (I even hear tejano music coming from Chinese Restaurants’ kitchens).

[weegee]

An anagram of Obama-Biden?

Nabob Media.