DEAR MISS MANNERS: Please tell me that proper etiquette for gift card receiving is more than just "thank you for the gift card." I would like to know what the receiver at least plans to do with the card, and to tell me in a note or a phone call exactly what they did do with it is even better. If nothing else, make something up!
To me this seems logical and obviously more polite. Isn't it amazing that people don't always think that way?
GENTLE READER: Yes, why aren't people more thoughtful about presents? Why don't they take the trouble to think about what items their friends and relatives might enjoy instead of instructing them to go shopping for themselves?
It is true that it would be gracious for the recipient to announce the result of such an offering if something, even a possibility, springs to mind. But as Miss Manners does not brook delays in writing thanks, she is not going to require a second letter of thanks to report the results. A gift certificate is not thoughtful enough to require double duty.
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