This reminds me of Richard Pryor’s scheme in “Superman II” – the half-penny round-off, stolen from the banks, amounting to billions. Brilliant. Good post, J.

Great post. It’s about time they do that. Almost as good as removing expiration dates that they tried to attache a few years back. Good to know someone is watching our back while we go about our daily business.

Uh, Mack, I beg to differ – that was Superman III. The one that didn’t make a lot of sense. II was the one with the other Kryptonians. Kneel before Zod!

And yes, it’s a brilliant scheme – only even more effective than that S3 or Office Space type scenario. Stores are making $2, $3, $12 at a time – not just a penny. I’m wondering how hard it would hit profits of some of these box chains if everyone just stopped allowing them to skim the cream with these cards.

It’s good for retailers too, because they don’t get to count unused gift cards towards their sales numbers (even though they get to keep the cash). Kudos to all.

So, here’s an interesting question. We have a small group of movie theatres and offer a gift book consisting of $20.00 theatre dollars in $2.00 increments. We also include a popcorn or drink certificate as a bonus for purchasing the book (a $4.00 value). Do we have to give back the purchase price of $20.00 in $2.00 increments if someone wanted and then give the free concession too? Sorry, some big box retailers are aimed at by the law, but we may lose quite a bit here …