Gift cards to grocery stores are also big among the working poor -- as a mechanism for controlling the spending habits of their wayward relatives. It's a way of giving money but making sure it gets spent on the things they need--like groceries, instead of yet another piece of crap. E.g., one neighbor's son spends every cent, to the point of getting himself in debt, on DVDs. Some kind of fetish for collecting them and their house is just overrun with the things. She refuses to give him money because she figures he'll go out and buy more blasted DVDs. So, it's a gift card to Publix.
Reminds me of witnessing some debate on a male dominated list years ago where some guy said he should only pay child support in the form of money paid directly to the landlord, the grocery store, kids-r-us, school tuition, etc. I pointed out that it would still mean the ex-wife or ex-gf or ex-one night stand would still be free to spend the money she would have otherwise spent in rent, food, etc. so it didn't matter. He didn't care. To him, it was all about the symbolism of control.
t 04:41 PM 12/22/2004, DSR wrote:
> The prepaid gift card and gift certificate is the gift of choice to
>give and receive among us serfs and peons. Gives us more bang for
>the buck when we hit those after Christmas sales in December and
>inventory clearance sales in January! Yi ha!
^^^^^^^^ {1]
:)
HA! For years, the first place I'd be, bright and early at 6 or 7 a.m., was in front of a stationary store to get those little goodie boxes for packing homebaked goodies, small fluted paper cups for homemade candy, and good wrapping paper at 75% off (it's is waaaaaaaaaay easier to wrap gifts nicely with _good_ paper! I know! I know! I'm a wantonly wasteful person!) And don't forget some coveted ornament or whathaveyou. I totally love unpacking all my decorations to find some treasure I picked up for a buck or two at the markdown sales! The lousy ornament I got last year was 25 cents, but it brought back memories of where we bought it and what we did that day. Hell, every year each of us gets some nifty decoration my mother purchased at the 75% off sales the day after xmas. I have also been known to do my Christmas shopping early, too.!
Then there are the January sales: 75-80% mark downs! Next year's fall/winter wardrobe for less than $100! When kids are little get a size 18 months bigger than they are for the season. If they're 6 months this fall, buy size 2 and they'll fit for next season. (Could I sell some book about how to pinch pennies or what?)
I noticed that some of the stores are already selling stuff at the 75% mark down price -- stores where they carry xmas ornaments but know that if they haven't sold 'em by now, they'll never sell them, namely Lowes and the Home Despot.
Wojtek:
>It depends how you look at gifts. If you emphasize their exchange value,
>then yes, giving money makes more sense than giving often useless stuff.
>But if you emphasize the emotional/sentimental value of gifts, they at not
>as much as exchange of values, but hierophanic statements (i.e. expressions
>of meaning embodied in a physically manifest form). From that point of
>view, a perfect gift should say something meaningful about the giver and
>his/her relationship to the recipient, and as such requires some pro-active
>thinking and understanding the person that receives the gift.
Hummers! Lots! With a cherry on top!
In my family, our favorite gifts are in the stockings. The stocking is the place for the dorkiest of gifts -- someone's favorite candy bar, that $2 doo dad that you know the person wants but won't spend it on themselves, a new pair of nail clippers or a bottle of hand lotion, a notepad holder for the dashboard b/c they commute long distance, little things you notice they like--my partner, for instance, loves jalapeno stuffed olives and fancy mustard. They cost a fortune though, so he doesn't buy them for himself. So, he gets those in his stocking. My dad would be happy with a massive hunk of NY state extra sharp cheddar cheese stuffed in the stocking. The reason we like them is because they are like little care packages of stuff you know the other person likes, may even likely buy for themselves, but you are saying, "I pay attention to even the most mundane things about you."
Oh and coupons! We make homemade coupons for redeeming: Good for one free car wash. Good for a back rub. Good for a "Let's make up this is a stupid argument." Good for one hour sitting on the porch watching the fireflies. These are things we'd do for each other anyway.....
It is stupid stuff, but then we are dorks and sit around making music with pots and pans and washboards after xmas dinner, too! :))
k
[1] As for Yi ha! -- It's my favorite expression. In grad school, I'd be sitting in the computer lab, working away. When I'd get done, I whoop out, "Yi ha!" All the Chinese grad students in our department would laugh at me. One day they explained that I was whooping out "Hello!" in Chinese. :)))
Double Yi HA! because I discovered a beauteous walnut table underneath a lacquer, a coat of white paint, and two coats of Depression Era green. Yi HA!
"We live under the Confederacy. We're a podunk bunch of swaggering pious hicks."
--Bruce Sterling