If your sweetheart gives you a gift that you really dislike should you return it? Or should you be grateful and keep it as a gesture of kindness? Purchasing gifts can stressful. I am someone who obsesses over the perfect gift. I love it when there is a special museum exhibit and I can buy gifts to save for special occasions. One of the most unique set of gifts I ever gave were designed and made by my friend Susan Schachter of The Artful Jewel. Because I believe most people put thought into a gift – I almost never return a gift.
Returning Gifts: As such, I will not be part of the statistic of “one in three” shoppers taking gifts back to the stores today. However, Tatiana Morales in a piece for CBS tells us, “Surprisingly, more men than women plan to haul their gifts back to the store. And the younger the shopper the more likely it is that he or she will return holiday gifts: 42 percent of 18-34 year olds will return gifts, 39 percent of shoppers age 35-44, and 33 percent of shoppers 45 or older.” Here is a link to options for returning gifts from AOL’s Regina Lewis, consumer advisor with good advice regarding deadlines and receipts. CBS Gift Returns
Re-Gifting: In the relationship section of Canadian Living, Natalie Bahadur presents 8 simple rules for re-gifting. She says, “We spoke with Louise Fox, director of Protocol Solutions and The Etiquette Ladies, to school us in the ways of re-gifting.
“According to Fox, re-gifting was once considered rude and unacceptable under just about any circumstance. Is it an acceptable practice today? ‘Not entirely’, she says. ‘As with most other areas of etiquette, it can depend on the situation.’”
The article presents rules of etiquette for proper re-gifting such as: Item must be brand-new, should not have been hanging around your closet for years, and should never be something hand made especially for you unless it is a family heirloom to be handed down to another member of the family. Re-Gifting Rules
After Christmas Sales: Good news for shoppers the day after Christmas is bad news for retailers – In an article for the Associated Press by Anne D’Innocenzio and Ashley M Heher called, Stores pull all-nighters, trying to save season they reported on the sales drop but noted, “Dan de Grandpre, editor-in-chief of www.dealnews.com, which tracks discounts both online and at regular stores, said he is still seeing stores inundated with merchandise. That means that shoppers will have a lot of choices among the piles of deeply discounted items after Christmas.” Sales
If you missed yesterday’s post, here is the link:Christmas, Hanukkah, Kindness, and Love
Copyright 2008 Rita Watson