This holiday season, more than half of adults want gift cards, those colorful slivers of plastic that can buy everything from a Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's, to a shotgun at BassPro Shops to an airline ticket at Southwest.
Holiday shoppers nationwide this season will buy almost $25 billion in gift cards, averaging about $40 a card.
It's the gift to give.
In a survey of consumers asked to choose their most desired holiday present, 55.2 percent of adults chose gift cards, the highest single category, according to a survey from the National Retail Federation.
That preference has been nudging upward since 2006 as some other major categories, such as clothing and video games, have declined.
Holiday shoppers buy an average of almost four gift cards each, according to the retail federation.
Men and women aren't equal in their love of receiving gift cards, though. Forty-nine percent of men preferred getting books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games, while 46.6 percent favored gift cards. But 63.4 percent of women preferred gift cards.
Broken down by age, 63.4 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds preferred to receive gift cards.
This season, unlike in the past, card recipients are more likely to spend on basics rather than save them for extravagant purchases, said Dan Horne, an associate professor of marketing at Providence College in Providence, R.I.
"How they'll be redeemed will shift, and they'll be spent for things like underwear and toothpaste," he said.
Depending on the way a company sets up its card program, a small transaction fee could be deducted, similar to the fee paid to credit card companies.
Reach M.S. Enkoji at menkoji(at)sacbee.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com SHNS AP-NY-12-02-09 1141EST
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