I think that a lot of us here on the "budget board" are pretty frugal types...and so I'm not surprised that many here would use a WalMart gift card for necessities. I think that another poster said it well though....they're probably used to seeing customers spend cash on groceries and use the gift card for something that is more of a "splurge" item.
While I have seen and heard some positive news on the economic front, mostly what I'm reading, and seeing and hearing for myself is negative.
First the positive things I've seen/heard/read.
We went to Borders a couple of weeks back, it was in January. It was positively packed. We couldn't get over it.....looked like December, and not January. Could be that a lot of people were using Borders as "the library" and not buying, but the check-out line was rather long.
Disney had a nice Q4 and Iger provided positive guidance moving forward. However, Disney is in a unique and enviable situation right now, that's tied directly to the weakness in the dollar. Many Americans who would have traveled abroad are staying home in the US this year. Count the Dvcgirl among this group. And so some of those people who will spend thousands on a vacation may end up at Disney...because it's still a good value for that group of people. They're also attracting more foreign travelers than ever thanks to the strength of the Euro. They also said that their cruise line is 85% booked for 2008. Cruising still provides a relatively inexpensive vacation for a family of four.
Number three, my husband works for a software company that designs software. One customer is Norwegian Cruiselines. One of his employees was slated to be on a ship in dry dock out in CA for a few days and then start off on a cruise and get off in Cabo.....but they got a call from NCL that the work needs to be completed in dry dock as the cabin slated for the software engineer is now sold....cruise sold out.
Now the negative. You knew I had to go there.
We live in a town in NJ....with a real downtown, shops, restaurants and the like. We try and shop/eat in town whenever we can to support local businesses and so I have developed a "first name" relationship with a lot of these shop/restaurant owners and will often ask them "how's business". I'm hearing negative things across the board...."slowest I've seen it", "really slow", "if things don't pick up soon...."
Last night we were at our favorite Irish Pub....hey, they pour a really good pint of Guinness, that's all I'm saying
. Anyway, the owner is a really nice Irish guy and he told us he's really slow. He's offering all kinds of specials to bring people in and yet is getting hit hard with rising food/beer costs. He's really trying hard to hold his prices, but he said he won't be able to for long.
Sitting next to us was a woman who used to work for K. Hovnanian homes. Their headquarters are on the Navesink River right in our little town. They are the sixth largest home builder in the U.S and build lots of higher end homes. She said that she was just laid off and that there are floors where they have desks/cubes taking up the entire floor, and that half of those desks are now empty.
I think it's going to be tough to side step this thing. Just heard that home equity loan "cash-out re-fis" are down 50% over last year. Home equity withdrawals are responsible for a *lot* of consumer spending over the last five years in this nation. And that's going to hurt....across the board.
), that we all refill over and over to use at Krogers for groceries or gas. Parents have them, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.....there is no limit to the number of gift cards a school can link to. It's a great little fundraiser, and has no bearing on any families' financial need.
So instead of her using the Target card, I gave her cash for it and used the card to pay for grocery items. I understand your point, but I see it as a good trend personally, that neither one of us spent it on a frivolous item. 
