It’s the holiday season yet again and we’ve already come out on the other side of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I’ve been super-sleuthing my way around the Web and the weekly circulars to find coupons and thoughtful, won’t-break-the-bank gift ideas. The one place I haven’t looked to find presents this year? My own house.
That’s right, I’m talking about re-gifting. There was a whole Seinfeld episode (“The Label Maker”) dedicated to the gaucheness of this “tradition” but that episode aired in 1995 – the Clinton era, the years of plenty.
And the times they are a-changin’, friends.
Adults in 1995 may have balked at the notion of repurposing an unwanted item or a found object around the house as a gift for someone else but research carried out in 2011 shows that the various and sundry repercussions of the Great Recession have caused budgets to shrink and caused consumers to warm up to the idea of re-gifting.
While the thought of re-gifting still horrifies most Americans (57 percent), the practice is gaining momentum, according to study from Discover Card, Riverwoods, Ill. Five percent of consumers re-gift once for every original gift they receive; 4 percent say they re-gift as often as possible; and 2 percent contend they love re-gifting and do it all the time.
Data from Corporate Research Group Ltd., Ottawa, Ontario, indicates that taking a gift from someone else and repackaging it to be given to someone else is up to 30 percent. Australia consumer watchdog Choice reports that re-gifting has a growing social seal of approval, as one in five people have no issue with offloading reject gifts on others.
The sentiment behind re-gifting, in my opinion, does make some sense. If you can’t use something or don’t want it, why shouldn’t someone else? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, right? After all, we’ve all received things we don’t like, already own or simply won’t use. But to then pass off that item as a purchased-just-for-you gift for a friend, co-worker or family member smacks of deceit to me.
I don’t think I’ll be giving any re-gifts this year but I already occasionally use gift cards to purchase gifts for other people so maybe I’m not as far off as I might think. Never say never, I suppose.
Would you give a re-gift to save money? How would you feel to find out you’d received a re-gift? Are some items more acceptable to pass on than others? Is this a trend that retailers need to be aware of? Are there things retailers can do to discourage re-gifting and encourage new sales? Can you see any way re-gifting would be beneficial for retailers?