Gift cards are for people who you are obligated to buy something for, but don't really like enough to put in any effort. They are a way of telling people, "I like this company more than I like you. I could have just given you money, but I couldn't be bothered to shop for you, but I really wanted to make sure that any money I had to spend on you went to this company."
If you don't believe me, why would they just give you a universal gift card? Did you know that they have been making them right here in the USA for a couple hundred years now? They even have decorative pictures of us presidents on them. And they are not just good in the US, you will find that they are taken most places on the planet.
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
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- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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In India e-commerce companies offer cash on delivery as a payment method, where you pay the delivery person that money after the delivery has been made and you can even open the package and verify it's okay first. In the US not only do you have to pay first, the delivery people can abandon your package at some random location and mark it as delivered and then good luck getting your money back from the company.
Yup gift cards are like money but with limited use. And sometimes expiration dates.
I think there's significant portions if it that don't get used at all, which is free money (profit) to the company. Or maybe they don't count it as profit because people may use it, idk.
Boomers think it shows they actually "cared* 🤡
If they care enough about how I think they'd give cash. Or no gifts at all, because the concept of "I have to give a gift for ..." Just makes me accumulate more things that I won't use, coz most things I use I buy.
I do appreciate greatly when someone asks what I want and I can give them a list of things that need at the moment, or something I'd like to have bit feels like too much money to spend for the low amount of use I'd get. Buying random things when I can't think of things has never worked in my favor.
The point of gift cards is that you have to spend it on something fun, not bills.
I wish the windows support guy on the phone will use the google play gift card for something fun, not for security update.
It is crazy. Reason why I never do it. I can't find a single good reason to use gift cards instead of money.
And for digital game preorders? That's even dumber. The publisher is not going to run out of bits, if you purchase after the launch, your digital game will be delivered all the same. But I guess corporate shills need to feel that they are helping the poor multi million corpo..
I FUCKING HATE GIFT VOUCHERS.
I have a little stack of vouchers for places I almost never visit, all expiring at random times in the next year or so. I have to remember what shops I have them for and make sure I spend money there before they expire. It's just one more thing to worry about. "Oh, I have to buy this from Screwfix - do we have the vouchers for them? Maybe! How much? I don't know, it doesn't say on there. Has it expired yet? Not sure. Do they work online? Oh it's not working maybe we used it and forgot to bin it". And then the annoyance of spending money somewhere and forgetting to use vouchers. Why do people burden me with this and consider it a gift? Do I look like somebody who shops at John Lewis?!
At least in Canada they can't legally expire. But yes, not only that, but you also have to buy more stuff and add your own money if you want to completely empty the gift card, as you'll never be able to get to that exact amount.
Only case where I consider pre-ordering is if there's a decent discount for doing it and I know that I'll definitely want the game at launch (for example if most of my group of friends will be playing it at the same time).
At the risk of doing some kind of ism, it's weird that normal people do it.
I can see the merit giving them to someone who is a drug addict or otherwise mentally enfeebled so they can get the intended gift with a little more agency over specifics with less risk of them spending it unwisely.
I think it's mostly social convention - i.e. sometimes it's not the 'done thing' to give someone money as it shows a lack of thoughtfulness perhaps. Gift cards are stopgap that make it look like you've put some effort into a gift.
They allow the recipient choice. However, they have a lot of downsides too. I bet gift cards from my in laws all the time. They generally go unused as are often for places I don’t visit, so it’s more like an obligation to go spend time and buy a present from a shop I don’t really like. However, it’s the thought that counts, so I don’t begrudge it, nor do I waste my time.
Couldn't you ask them to give you gift cards for places you might visit?
Yes, but kind of defeats the purpose. And let's them know I didn't like the other gifts.
People are crazy, yes. It is obvious even without a shower :)
But for sane people, it is good, especially in the case of the videogames. While crazies throw money to the publisher/developer, helping fund the production, I can buy a game (full game, mind you: with cleaned out bugs and a pile of DLCs) for a few bucks later. A few years later, but that's ok for me.
Imagine if all people were like me? We might have had many fewer games.
Game pre-orders have not been good for sane people. Sure if people didn't pre-order less games might exist overall but more good games would exist. Pre-orders have taught game companies that they can just make a game that looks pretty and has a fancy trailer and people will buy it. So now they all do that instead of making good games.
Yes that's a good point, we need the early adopters to buy the games when they come out so companies can make their money. But still... in terms of pre-orders why not just wait until it's been released and see what reviews are like first? 🤔
You ask crazy people to be reasonable crazy? :)