Oops
Unlike some newspapers, we don't bury corrections on page D-47. We post them right up here at the top. A few days ago, I posted this item criticizing a local TV news reporter for implying that that one reason we don't know how good or bad the holiday shopping season was is the rapid growth in the giving of "gift cards" - those credit card-like payment cards that are really just fancy gift certificates. I said that was silly because, with gift cards, "the retailer has already made the sale. The money is in the bank. They're just waiting for you to pick out the merchandise."

That's true - but wrong.

According to Robert Musil, who seems to know about these things: And there has been a huge increase in the popularity of gift "certificates" and "cards", which are not accounted for until they are redeemed for merchandise. That all means that the holiday retail season now runs well into January. Nobody will know if there was a "lump of coal" left for the retailers this year until around February 1.

He's right, of course. At many retailers, when someone spends most of a gift card's balance, the remainer is returned to the customer in cash. The money is in the bank, but can't be accounted for until later. I don't know if the TV reporter knew that - or just blundered into the truth - but I should have done a little more research.

I found Musil's comment on gift cards in his long dismemberment of a recent column by the New York Times' Paul Krugman. It's worth reading.