Not quite OT - but CNBC is doing some packages this morning on how gift cards are “fueling” the opioid crisis. Now, they aren’t using the system legally, of course, but it could very well impact the legal GC industry. The way it works for the addicts is that they steal an item, then return it for a gift card, and then purchase their drugs with the GC (of course for a drastically reduced value - sometimes as little as .25 on the dollar). The dealers then sell the GCs through Raise, Cardpool, etc.
Home Depot is now changing their system so that refunds are only issued as same-store, in-store merchandise credits which are linked to the returner’s personal information, such that in order to use it, you have to provide your DL.
It’s a HUGE, costly problem for these retailers, not to mention the social responsibility aspect. And as I said before, at this point it seems to only be associated with returns as described above. But, I think it’s important to be aware of this and consider how it may impact the overall GC industry.
. We did have to see their ID and write down their address so I assume that corporate was tracking their returns. It's possible that something was being done on the back end (I doubt it) but we were not allowed to do anything except follow them closely once we saw them walk in. If we saw them actually take an item and stash it in a bag, we could call mall security. Usually, we never actually saw it, but we knew exactly what was going on. Sometimes, the items they were "returning" were things we'd just put out on the sales floor that morning so we knew they were not legitimate purchases.
When someone here would mention a discount or free gift card with gift card purchases, I'd check my ad and either I wouldn't even have the picture or the cards would be shown but no sale for them. So maybe someone will get lucky Sunday?
) but I'm hoping to get Disney cards with the quarterly bonus plus the first year bonus.
