[mikejarema]

Giftcards are not cash either!

Unless there is an obvious incentive to purchase a giftcard -- critically for a store/vendor which you already have near-term plans to spend money at -- then avoid them. Eg. I recently purchased one which had an effective 20% savings due to some holiday promotion and will be done spending the balance some time next week. Even then I barely decided to do so.

I don't know how we got conned into trading our money for giftcard balances at par.

[Symbiote]

When I was a child in Britain I'd usually get at least one 'Book Token' gift at each birthday, whether from a friend or relative.

It ensured I bought a book with the £5 they sent, and it was redeemable at pretty much any bookshop, large or small — so it was relatively safe.

I see the system still exists: https://www.nationalbooktokens.com/

[hooverd]

I'm disappointed that they're gift cards and not physical tokens.

[osmarks]

People are perfectly happy to give other people specific gifts, which are even more constraining than gift cards. This doesn't seem that surprising.