Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Gift cards are free money!

For Christmas I got a stack of supermarket gift cards, which I've used on my past two grocery-shopping trips. The first round of cards covered all but $29 of the bill. The cashier said, "That's a lot of groceries for $29!" I smiled uncomfortably and noted that the total was in fact more than $170.

The second round of cards covered all but $3 of the second trip. The cashier said, "Nice, free groceries!!" To which I responded, "Um, not quite!" The groceries cost $150, and someone had to pay for it.

I said to Chris, this is why the economy is in the crapper. Because people think if you pay with plastic, it's free.

2 comments:

Maggie said...

I too got a grocery giftcard for Christmas. Whole Foods.

When I first used my card, I ended up with money leftover on it. The cashier said, "Nice - leftover cash! Someone loves you."

I don't know what that says/means, but on a totally unrelated note, I do like how happy the cashiers at WF always are..... when I'm able to afford going there thanks to a giftcard. ;)

Unknown said...

"I said to Chris, this is why the economy is in the crapper. Because people think if you pay with plastic, it's free."

Sooooooooo true.