They are a great gift for someone who has everything or who is hard to please.  Stores love them and they make up a huge industry. Gift cards have exploded onto the scene over the past few years as a fast and easy way to give a gift to someone.  And many people love receiving them since you always know that you will be getting something you really want.

So just how important is the gift card segment? Well numbers found from Statistics Canada showed that in 2003 approximately one third of all stores were running a gift card program.  Three years later that number had risen to around 82% of retailers that sell gift cards. And the biggest cause may be convenience.

If you have a son or daughter who recently got their driver’s license it may not be the best idea to wrap-up a canister of gas as a present and you definitely are not going to give them your credit card. But you can quite easily give them a gift card for $100. Gift cards can also be useful for travel where it can be redeemed for bus, train or plane tickets and not have to worrying about travel dates.

One of the most booming and popular kinds of gift cards to send someone is for coffee chains. They can be given to family, friends and co-workers and really is the gift that keeps on giving with a little caffeine jolt each day.  Coffee houses like Star Bucks even lets you buy another gift card for someone using the credits that are on your own card.

Gift cards, however, are not just for the everyday run of the mill purchases.  The Four Seasons hotel chain offers cards with denominations of $1,000 up to $5,000.  And if that is not sufficient for you, you can contact the head office and request enormous $100,000 value gift card. For that amount of money you are going want to find great gift card holders to put it in.

Despite the popularity of gift cards there is a disadvantage to them which is that they usually do not go on sale like ordinary merchandise. Whomever you give the card to will be able to buy items on sale. However the person giving the card will often not have the to ability to get a higher priced item at a discounted price.

The store which the card is good for should also be a consideration.  Since a large portion of gift cards go unredeemed you will want to make sure that the person you are sending it to shops at or has an interest in that store.  A big percentage of cards are never cashed-in which amounts to discarded money for the consumer.

Still gift cards can be a fantastic present especially for those in your life that can be hard to buy for. And because many different stores offer them you can be sure to find one that’s right for the person on your list.

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