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... for better everything.
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The Hustle
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Issue #87
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Sunday, January 5, 2020
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<h2 style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 36px;">
<strong>
The economics of unused gift cards
</strong>
</h2>
<p style="color: #737373; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 10px;">
Every year, Americans spend billions of dollars on gift cards. But what happens to the money when the cards aren’t redeemed?
</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 24px;">
<strong>
BY
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">
Zachary Crockett
</a>
</strong>
</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
The most desired item on wish lists this past holiday season wasn’t a pair of Airpods, a Nintendo Switch, or a
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
Baby Yoda
</a>
plush toy.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
For the
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
13th straight year
</a>
, the present of choice was the gift card.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
In 2019, Americans purchased an estimated
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
$171B
</a>
worth of these plastic cash substitutes, ranging from $500 prepaid Visa cards to grandma’s annual $25 Cheesecake Factory “nibble.”
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Gift cards are so popular that they account for
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
55%
</a>
of the average shopper’s entire annual gift budget.
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<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px 25px;">
Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
</p>
</td>
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<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
In an ideal world, the gift card is a win-win: For the buyer, it’s a hassle-free gifting experience; for the recipient, it’s a cash equivalent that can be used at any store or restaurant
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
But gift cards
<em>
aren’t
</em>
always ideal. Oftentimes, they go unused — whether we lose them, forget we have them, let them expire, or fail to spend the full amount that was gifted.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
And when that happens, there’s only one winner: The companies that sell the cards.
</p>
<h4 style="border-left-color: #ff5a41; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 6px; display: block; font-size: 18px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 15px;">
<strong>
When gift cards go unused
</strong>
</h4>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Most people who receive a gift card are quick to put it to use: More than 70% of all gift cards are redeemed within
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<strong>
6 months
</strong>
</a>
of purchase, according to one survey.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
But after that first 180 days, the rate of use tends to stagnate. At the one year mark, just under 80% of cards are redeemed — and as time passes, they are less and less likely to see the light of day.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
At any given time,
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
10% to 19%
</a>
of gift card balances remain unredeemed — and around
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
6%
</a>
of gift cards are
<strong>
never
</strong>
<strong>
even used
</strong>
.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fredemption_20200105060310.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXNLd:xHf_-zlkgReKUzC1T3uJeFZbXh2ZR02eCnpSQYH8lPM" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
</a>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px 25px;">
Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td class="ignore-defaults brief-style" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: .3px; line-height: 20px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 10px;">
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
These small percentage points add up to big money when you consider that, over the past 10 years,
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
more than $1
</a>
trillion in gift cards have been sold.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Between 2005 and 2015 alone, unredeemed gift card balances amounted to an estimated
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<strong>
$45.7B
</strong>
</a>
. That’s a hell of a lot of Cheesecake Factory dinners!
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
The reasons we don’t spend gift card money can vary:
</p>
<ul style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0 0 0 30px; padding-bottom: 14px; padding-left: 12px;">
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
We simply
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
forget
</a>
we had the gift card.
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
We lose the gift card.
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
We don’t like the retailer/restaurant that issued the gift card.
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
We
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
can’t access
</a>
the retailer/restaurant due to location or other factors.
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
We buy something of lesser value and leave the leftover amount on the card.
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
The gift card expires and/or comes with restrictions.
</li>
</ul>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
It should also be noted that, despite
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
federal protections
</a>
, gift card issuers can still charge “
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
inactivity fees
</a>
” in certain states if the consumer doesn’t use his card within 12 months. These fees might range from $2 to $5 per month, making a gift card balance difficult to pin down after a few years of non-use.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
But what happens on the
<em>
retail
</em>
side when gift cards go unused? Are corporations like Starbucks and Walmart just getting money for nothing?
</p>
<h4 style="border-left-color: #ff5a41; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 6px; display: block; font-size: 18px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 15px;">
<strong>
Why retailers love gift cards
</strong>
</h4>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
When grandma buys a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory, she exchanges $25 in
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
fungible
</a>
cash for $25 in-store credit that can be redeemed at a later date.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Big companies like The Cheesecake Factory use what is called
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
accrual accounting
</a>
, which means that money is tallied not when it is received, but when it is earned. In other words, grandma’s $25 isn’t counted as revenue until the gift card is
<em>
redeemed
</em>
.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fgift%2520cards_20200105060348.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXNLd:xHf_-zlkgReKUzC1T3uJeFZbXh2ZR02eCnpSQYH8lPM" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
</a>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px 25px;">
A selection of gift cards for sale at a Michaels arts and crafts store in California (Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td class="ignore-defaults brief-style" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: .3px; line-height: 20px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 10px;">
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Under a
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
2009 federal law
</a>
, most gift cards can’t expire for 5 years (and in many
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
states
</a>
, like California, they can never expire). Companies have to plan for the possibility that gift cards may be redeemed at some point in the distant future — and until then, any unused gift card balances are earmarked as
<strong>
liabilities
</strong>
.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
The most recent filings of several large corporations show that these unused gift card liabilities often amount to sizeable sums of money:
</p>
<ul style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0 0 0 30px; padding-bottom: 14px; padding-left: 12px;">
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<strong>
Walmart
</strong>
:
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
$1.9B
</a>
(2019)
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<strong>
Amazon
</strong>
:
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
$2.8B
</a>
(2018)
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<strong>
Starbucks
</strong>
:
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
$1.6B
</a>
(2018)
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<strong>
Target
</strong>
:
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
$727m
</a>
(2018)
</li>
</ul>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
But after a certain amount of time (typically, 6-24 months), the law also permits companies to turn these liabilities into what’s called
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
breakage income
</a>
.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
This is the amount of money from gift cards that the company estimates will
<em>
never
</em>
be redeemed. Another way to put it: That’s the amount of money the company is essentially getting for free.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
For instance, let’s say you never spend the $25 gift card to The Cheesecake Factory that grandma gave you. Your grandma paid the chain $25 and the chain didn’t have to give you anything in return. It netted $25 at a 100% profit margin.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
In 2017, 5 companies banked over $20m in breakage income, according to figures listed in annual reports.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fbreakage_20200105060421.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXNLd:xHf_-zlkgReKUzC1T3uJeFZbXh2ZR02eCnpSQYH8lPM" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
</a>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px 25px;">
Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td class="ignore-defaults brief-style" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: .3px; line-height: 20px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 10px;">
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
To put this into perspective, here’s what this money
<em>
could’ve
</em>
bought the consumers who put their gift card funds to use:
</p>
<ul style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0 0 0 30px; padding-bottom: 14px; padding-left: 12px;">
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<strong>
Starbucks:
</strong>
$105m = 57m cups of coffee
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<strong>
Best Buy:
</strong>
$37m = 148k Smart TVs
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<strong>
Home Depot:
</strong>
$34m = 493k cordless drills
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<strong>
Outback Steakhouse:
</strong>
$26m = 1.4m 11-oz. sirloin steaks
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<strong>
Dunkin’ Donuts:
</strong>
$22m = 22m donuts
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<strong>
Chipotle:
</strong>
$4m = 615k burrito bowls
</li>
</ul>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Chipotle’s annual report gives us some insight into how beneficial gift cards can be for big companies: The chain claims that, on average, 4% of its gift cards are never redeemed. That means that the company gets to pocket $1 out of every $25 gift card purchase at virtually no cost.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Some states, like Delaware and New York, have passed
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
laws
</a>
that entitle the state to unclaimed property, including gift card money. But by and large, the corporations who issue the cards still get to keep most unused gift card funds.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Despite this, retailers claim they make
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<em>
more
</em>
</a>
money when consumers spend their cards. Here’s why:
</p>
<ul style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0 0 0 30px; padding-bottom: 14px; padding-left: 12px;">
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<strong>
75%
</strong>
</a>
of people who redeem gift cards end up spending
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<em>
more
</em>
</a>
than the value on their cards (e.g., they’ll use a $50 gift card to make a $100 purchase).
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
On average, shoppers spend
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<strong>
$59 more
</strong>
</a>
than the value of their gift cards.
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
Shoppers using gift cards are
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<strong>
2.5x more likely
</strong>
</a>
to pay full price for an item than a customer paying with cash/credit card.
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<strong>
34%
</strong>
</a>
of shoppers say a gift card prompts them to visit a store they otherwise wouldn’t frequent (good for new customer adoption).
</li>
<li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding: 4px 0;">
Gift cards often aren’t redeemed in one trip, prompting shoppers to return multiple times (good for foot traffic metrics).
</li>
</ul>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
None of this means that gift cards are an inherently bad gift — especially those that have more general applications (Visa, Amazon, etc.).
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
But in the eyes of many economists, there is a much more enticing alternative…
</p>
<h4 style="border-left-color: #ff5a41; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 6px; display: block; font-size: 18px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 15px;">
<strong>
Straight up cash
</strong>
</h4>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
In a Scrooge-worthy 1993 paper titled “
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
The Deadweight Loss of Christmas
</a>
,” economist Joel Waldfogel (now an economics professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management) asked a bunch of Yale students to place a monetary value on the holiday gifts they’d received.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
His conclusion: Recipients valued their gifts at between 10% and 30% less than what the gift giver paid for them.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<a style="color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
<img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fdeadweight%2520loss_20200105060521.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXNLd:xHf_-zlkgReKUzC1T3uJeFZbXh2ZR02eCnpSQYH8lPM" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
</a>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px 25px;">
Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td class="ignore-defaults brief-style" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: .3px; line-height: 20px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 10px;">
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
If Waldfogel’s estimates held true today, it would mean that between
<strong>
$73B and $219B
</strong>
of the
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
$730B
</a>
consumers spend on gifts during the holidays (including
<strong>
$17B to $51B
</strong>
in gift cards) is virtually wasted in the transaction process.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
The most economical and rational gift, suggests Waldfogel, is cash.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Naysayers would argue that cash in an envelope is against the intimate, personal, and symbolic spirit of gift-giving. But then again, so are little plastic cards.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
The good news is that there is now an entire
<a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #ff5a41; color: #ff5a41; text-decoration: none;">
ecosystem of sites
</a>
where gift cards can be exchanged for cash at anywhere from 60% to 90% of the value of the card. In a matter of minutes, a $50 gift card can be converted into $40 of legal tender.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
These platforms liberate your gift card money from the shackles of coffee, steak, or 900-calorie hunks of cheesecake, and allow you to spend it on your own terms.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Though either way, the gift card giver's hard-earned dollars still end up in the pockets of companies that have done very little to earn them.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
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<h2 style="font-size: 22px; font-weight: 800; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 26px; margin: 36px 5px 16px 22px;">
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<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
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annually
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</p>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
With returns like that, investing in art can make a lot of sense… and a
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lot
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of dollars. Experts agree, too -- in fact, 88% of wealth managers surveyed by Deloitte recommend dedicating part of your portfolio towards fine art.
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<h4 style="border-left-color: #ff5a41; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 6px; display: block; font-size: 18px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 15px;">
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</h4>
<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
Us either. But here’s the thing… thanks to
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<h4 style="border-left-color: #ff5a41; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 6px; display: block; font-size: 18px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 15px;">
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True. It’s just the first time you don’t need to be a multi-squillionare to get in on the fun. Unfortunately, that’s also why there’s a 25k-person waiting list. Yikes.
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<p style="margin-left: 24px;">
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so they’re willing to let you brainiacs
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.
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Use the link below to jump to the front of the queue and get your Masterworks membership now:
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meh
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love it
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REFERRALS
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//ambassadors.thehustle.co/?ref=950fce10a7
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YOUR UNIQUE URL
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Zack Crockett
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SENIOR EDITOR
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Bobby Durben
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AD WRITER
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Brad "consumer watchdog" Wolverton
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HEAD OF CONTENT
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Amanda Lynn
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The bluegrass musician's dream gal
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JOBS
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EVENTS
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SHOP
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251 KEARNY ST. STE 300, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108, UNITED STATES • 415.506.7210
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4 years, 4 months ago - news@thehustle.co
What happens to unused gift cards?
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