It's all about the gift cards

Ok, as I mentioned before, I gave out many gift cards this time around and in return, I received a bunch of gift cards for Christmas this year. They're both nice and easy to get for somone as a present as I recently experienced. Being on the receiving end of gift cards, I can say that they are truly two sides of a coin. For the receipient, they are great if you like the stuff they sell at that store. Or the gift cards can stink if you don't frequent a particular type of store and you get locked into going to that one place just to use the gift card.

More specifically, gift cards are great when they come from a large chain type store. You can always find a CompUSA, Macy's or Bloomingdale's in the major local area mall. You can't, however, expect to find a local restaurant like J and R's steakhouse, Microcenter or a local organic food store nearby. The person you give the gift card would have to live around here. The best option (besides getting them a real gift) is to get a gift card at a place you know they frequent.

So, imagine my surprise when I decided to indulge one of my vices, which is playing strategy based computer games until the sun peeks out the next morning, and I couldn't find a single copy of the latest Civilization at three different Best Buy stores. The game has been out since November, so you'd figure the rush has ended for them. After driving to the fourth store, I finally found it and discovered why they were selling like hotcakes. They were ten dollars off. Only this store hadn't gotten around to labelling them at the discounted price. So I finally was able to use that Best Buy gift card I received. Thank goodness for laziness.