Hacker News Reader

Comment by triceratops | Hacker News Reader

If you're throwing them in the trash, why not give them out whenever you're expected to tip?

I've given Starbucks gift cards to homeless folks, who were always happy to receive them. And in California, businesses must give you cash for a gift card if it's less than $10 in value.

https://www.giftcardgranny.com/blog/5-important-facts-about-...

That would be a great billboard...a close up of a hipster handing out a Starbucks card to a homeless person. One of those feel-good moments.

I mean, they do have food there. A $10 gift card would buy a decent breakfast sandwich and a basic coffee, I'm sure a homeless person would appreciate that. Not to mention an excuse to spend a while indoors.

I agree that the image is funny, but it's not the _worst _ way to give someone in need $10.

Yeah, for a homeless person, the advantage to having a little bit of cash to drop in a restaurant or coffeehouse means that they get to rent that table for, oh, perhaps a couple of hours. They get access to a well-maintained restroom. There is climate control.

Motels > restaurants > libraries > buses, in terms of comfortable hangouts.

When I was living on the streets, St. Vincent de Paul continually finagled for me some gift certificates to a 24-hour burger joint. That was a GODSEND, because the worst part of living on the streets is wondering what to do with yourself all night. It was absolutely Heaven for me if I could slip into the burger joint and doodle in my journal, or sip coffee in an IHOP and read a book.

Its just convenience. Its not worth it to lug them around and try to remember you have one.

I hope you can take a step back and understand how wild it is that carrying a plastic card in your pocket for 2 minutes while you exit your building and hand it to pretty much anyone is too "inconvenient" and you'd rather throw away the $$.

"Lug them around" they're not lead bricks. Put them in your wallet. When you pay at a restaurant or coffee shop, they're right there next to your cash or credit card, ready to be used.

Throwing out literal money is just absurd elitism and waste.

My wallet has spots for a total of 5 cards. Between ID, bank card, credit, medical and building I literally dont have space for it. (Im not buying a new wallet to lug around gift cards). But even historically when I had a bigger wallet that could carry more card I would never remember the off chance I went to one of these stores that I had a card. I go to starbucks maybe once a year (its just not my coffee place).

> Throwing out literal money is just absurd elitism and waste.

Its not wasted, Starbucks still gets the money, I just don't get anything in return.

Gift cards are just thoughtless and pointless in my personal opinion. Give people money.

> Its not wasted, Starbucks still gets the money

That counts as "wasted" to me.

If you really think gift cards are pointless, stop accepting them. Tell people it's a personal policy. They will respect that.

I don't know how you figure it isn't wasted money. Not only did you not receive the good or service that they spent their hard-earned money on - which is fine, you don't have to use it for yourself - you didn't even pass on the gift card and receive some smaller benefit. That's thoughtless and disrespectful - not the act of someone giving you a gift card, but you accepting and throwing it out.

> Put them in your wallet.

I don't have space in my wallet for them, personally. By design. It improved my daily life more than I expected when I stopped using my wallet to carry more than the absolute essentials.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com