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Comment by rtb | Hacker News Reader

Why $5 Starbucks gift cards and not $5 cash?

I hate gift cards. "Here, rather than crassly giving you actual money, I've spent that money on this company scrip that you can only use in one place. Aren't you excited?" Great idea, just brilliant. I'll add it to the stack of worthless iTunes cards and cards for restaurants that don't have a franchise within 500 miles...

It’s the thought that counts.

Gift giving is more than just empty cash transfers.

You could level your hate at anything. "Great, mom. Now I'm stuck playing with this one corporation's toy instead of having the cash to buy whatever I want. Ugh, I hate it!"

It makes you sound ridiculous.

Gift cards can be a reasonable gift. For example, you know someone likes hiking etc. and buys gear at $OUTDOOR_STORE but you really don't know what they want/need. But on the whole they're a bit of a scam based on what's mostly a relatively upper class attitude, at least on the US, about giving cash as a gift.

cash is a pretty terrible gift for people who give each other presents on a regular basis, unless the relationship is not reciprocal. if you and your friend just give each other $50 on Christmas, it's sort of pointless. if you give your friend a $50 gift card, now they have to go get themselves something nice that they wouldn't have purchased otherwise.

Uh. So... those ‘worthless iTunes cards’; you wouldn’t be interested in, say, me sending you a self addressed, prestamped box, & you sending back those cards?

I'll buy all your gift cards for 50% of their value.

totally agree with you. And some visa gift cards charge you monthly fee after activating them!! I had few cards that I forgot to use, and their value became $0 after a year. And I am also concerned about the environmental damage caused by millions of plastic gift cards.. all the way from sourcing, manufacturing, transporting and disposing them. And to certain extent, it forces over-consumption behavior. I got 2 kids, and always got too many BabysRus/ToysRus gift cards. I am either forced to use them or re-gift/exchange them with others. In the end, the cards always get used by either myself or the others. If unavoidable, then you can at least print/send an e-gift card.

If it's plain cash, I can just deposit them without buying anything. For these reasons, I always wrap cash in an envelope with a personal hand-written note. Have been gifting this way to teachers, postmen, home-cleaners and no one has complained so far. When my friends/colleagues try to gift for any occasion, I always encourage them to gift cash.

> to certain extent, it forces over-consumption behavior

isn't gift giving itself over-consumption? at least among peers, the other person would have just gotten the item themselves if they actually needed it.

> When my friends/colleagues try to gift for any occasion, I always encourage them to gift cash.

presumably you exchange gifts with these people on some sort of regular basis. if so, isn't this just a net zero transfer? may as well just not give gifts.

I could remember wrong but I don't think prepaid cards are allowed to charge fees like that anymore. It's why the up front cost of a prepaid Visa loaded with $50 is now more than $50, when it didn't used to be

Handing out cash is a bit gauche, isn't it?

I would have thought the American tipping culture would make most immune to that.

Being on the receiving end of tips when you don't typically get them is odd to say the least.

My wife gives horseback riding lessons; not a job that people typically offer tips for. She's very good at what she does and sometimes a new parent (it's almost always tween girls taking riding lessons) will tip her when they realize how much their kids enjoyed the session. She used to refuse, but after realizing that just made everyone feel awkward, she takes the cash now. However, while she appreciates the gesture, it still makes her feel a little weird.

A simple "thank you, you're awesome" would probably do just as well.

Gauche is a bit of an upper class word, no? Why would upper classes decide to stigmatize handing out cash as gauche?

Oh.

I don't know if you live I the US, but if you just start walking around with five dollar bills and start handing them out, you really don't know what kind of reaction you're going to get. I tried giving my AT&T guy $20 for waiting for me, he wouldn't take it. Perhaps I could have insisted.

Americans can be deeply sensitive to people thinking they're poor and in need of assistance. And five bucks is practically nothing. Most people might well just take it to Starbucks anyway.

> deeply sensitive to people thinking they're poor and in need of assistance

Exactly. A gift card is appreciation. Cash is pity.

I think the common word that would be said aloud, while meaning pity, is charity.

"I don't need/want your charity..." vs "I don't need/want your pity..."

Not to mention, I think I've read that flight attendants are _prohibited_ from receiving cash tips, on pain of termination, non-cash gifts are presumably acceptable (I've heard of quite favorable treatment being lavished on passengers who show up with fresh baked goodies for the cabin crew)

I had a similar experience with the Best Buy Geek Squad. They went above and beyond and I tried to tip $20. The geek squad guy waved his hands, backed up and say "No I can't take that". He said the only thanks he wanted was filling out the survey and my repeat business.

Company policy is probably that they're not allowed to take tips. So accepting it would be a risk. Getting you to fill out the survey and give them good ratings could get them promoted instead of punished.

Every major airport in the USA is likely to have multiple Starbucks locations, they're likely to open as early as or earlier than anything else in the airport, they also have breakfast options and non coffee drinks, they have a rewards program that actually is decent for regular users, and even if you want nothing to do with Starbucks you can always pass those cards along.

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