I MUST KNOW!! (it's like content-free Friday every day in here.)

[featherynscale]

[Poll #1320171]

Comments

[zylch.livejournal.com]

I will try to get something at the horrible place and then donate it to charity, or otherwise offset the awfulness. I will also try to shoot for something *just under* the value of the card, so that I do not add more money to their coffers.

[agrnmn.livejournal.com]

Tougher to define horrible these days.

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

Not using it at all = very sad.
Grampa had never used this gorgeous thick robe I'd gotten him -- ankle length, hood, deep pockets, all that -- b/c he was saving it in case he had to go to the hospital. When he did have to go, he was too sick to use it.
Even if the china gets chipped, you can remember "That's from Thanksgiving 2006, when Julie dropped the ladle and gravy went everywhere...."

[apocalypticbob.livejournal.com]

I'd either use the gift certificate or pass it on to someone in need, or maybe to my local school, if it was a store that would be appropriate to do so.

And always use it. The expensive perfume. The fancy nightgown. Whatever. You never know when or if you will have another day to have the opportunity.

[malvito.livejournal.com]

By using the gift certificate, you can get something from the store of questionable ethical practices without actually using your own money. It's kind of like stealing. Except that it's not, but, by not giving them your own money, it is, even if it isn't.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

This is the best rationalization I have seen yet for this subject. :)

[duane-kc.livejournal.com]

One of the scams many stores engage in is involved with gift cards. They *know* up to 20% of these cards will be lost or otherwise never used; if not used within a certain period (most places it's one or five years), then the chain gets to keep the money.

Use the card.

[infintysquared.livejournal.com]

1. I strongly prefer to bring my vague fears to light through analytical filters, turning them from wide-ranging vaguely-defined but subconscious guilty pleasures into very specific, but understandable yet minutely specific conciously-acknowledged irrational-thus-unreachable guilt triggers.
   
   Easier to avoid a trigger that exists at {0.1131355<x<0.1131356} than to avoid a trigger that exists at {0<-0.5}.
   
   
2. Easy answer. I refuse to be held responsible for the moral/ethical decisions of others. Thus, I hold no guilt in accepting the gift certificate, and refusing to use its symbolic dollar value in return for goods/services.
   
   
3. That which I own is meant for me, and my use. My terms of ownership generally define 'use as defined by description of object' within the contract of ownership, thus my answer is a clear A, "Buy something expensive and beautiful, ad damage it through use."
   
   Thus, I would prefer to buy a fine leather saddle, and wear it silk-thin through riding, rather than to purchase a lovely jade statuette, and keep it pristine in a curio cabinete.

[vediskoerner.livejournal.com]

In Illinois (check your own state to be sure) the store has to give the money to the state after five years so the state can hold it for the person who bought the GC to reclaim it.

in practice it doesn't ever happen that way. But that's the rules.

[kenllama.livejournal.com]

except for the first question, you seem to have a lot of consensus here!

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

I only wavered on the first one because it is sometimes harder to resist a 'vague' (as in ill-defined, not as in wishy-washy) horrible desire, whereas one that is well-defined is easier to avoid.

[raginsouthasian.livejournal.com]

On the gift card, how to use it depends on store policy (minimizing store benefit):
If purchases on a gift card can be returned for cash, buy something for the full value of the card and return it for cash.
Else
If you can get the balance in cash after some minimum purchase, buy the minimum amount (ideally on something with low margins), and get the rest in cash.
Else
Try to buy low margin stuff.

If you can somehow get cash back, you should do it ASAP to minimize them making money on the carry.

Also, try to make the being in the store unpleasant for other shoppers, and monopolize as much sales person time as possible.