I have a customer who signed up for our gift card program. He took 50 of them, put $20 each on them and took them to the mall to hand out.
Now, this actually cost him NOTHING unless they were used, (well it cost him .95 a piece for the cards.
15 of those came back to his store, and it's a High end bike shop, there's nothing in there for $20, 10 of those bought a $500 bike. not a bad way to make an extra 5k in my opinion.
I use that as an example to get people to take gift cards when they sign up with us.
Pat