This is a great idea! This local chain of hardware stores is only in San Francisco, but maybe other hardware stores will follow suit. Just look here to see the details for yourself.
Just think, instead of getting something probably overpriced, yet nice, and impractical, you could get just what you need--hammer, wood glue, ladder, door lock, power tool, paint....oh, happy day. I have a teacher friend who married. Teachers went in together and got him several Lowe's cards, sort of the same thing as the gift registry, except the givers can choose what to give. This is a win-win situation.
The registry is probably online, I forgot that detail. Even if a person had to call or visit the store, shopping would be so much faster.
We have been buying gift cards to hardware stores at auctions and giving these as birthday and retirement gifts to the men we know. Much more appreciated than another tie!
ReplyDeletejust make sure that you check the value on the cards. Seems that stores (especially WALMART) have found that people who buy gift cards rarely check the value, and the gift recipients don't ask how much was supposed to be on the card. Walmart is under investigation of shorting the value on gift cards.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/20/earlyshow/living/money/main20064661.shtml
Previously Starbucks was busted for this
http://www.pleasantonweekly.com/news/show_story.php?id=2451
The problem is rampant in the gift card world. So, make sure that you have the card's value CHECKED before you give it. And keep the receipt of the gift card purchase so you can catch the cheaters.
Anonymous, the first story was about the gift receipts not being honored at the price of the gift. The second story was about Starbucks not giving cash for remainder of the card under $10. So, it appears gift cards are not being tampered with like I feared! Neither are about gift cards, but people need to heed the warnings. Thanks a lot. I didn't know about either of these instances. However, I did have something I bought at KMart and wanted to return. They can track purchases with their reward card, but they said they will not give the original value unless you have the receipt. It turned out that I took the item back home and got back the full price later! I told them what I thought of their policy, especially since I had given them my rewards care and they could see the purchase and confirm it, just not honor it.
ReplyDeleteLindaM, It would be nice right now to have a boatload of Lowe's cards...lol.