The holidays are just around the corner… so have you gotten all of your shopping done? (I haven’t even started.) If you are still in the “planning” stages–don’t fret–it happens to all of us (Okay, maybe not Martha Stewart), time marches on (often without us) and sometimes procrastination becomes the mother of invention. Enter the art of re-gifting.
You know what I am talking about. Re-gifting: the art (and the best re-gifters truly make it such) of taking that unwanted picture frame you got from Aunt Edna and giving it to your co-worker (tucked inside a beautiful box and tied with a fabulous bow, of course). For all of you who admit that this scenario sounds familiar—I have good news. According to a recent study, re-gifting may not be as taboo as it once was.
The study was designed by a market research firm, which surveyed more than 1,500 American adults, and found that over half of the respondents admitted to “re-gifting.” Proving that giving others items we find undesirable is “becoming a far more common and acceptable phenomenon.”
In fact, the study found 78% of consumers who were polled felt that it was acceptable to re-gift some or most of the time. Seventy-eight percent! WOW! I was surprised the number was so high. But, I’m not alone; the spokesperson for the company that conducted the study admitted she was stunned by the number of people who admitted to re-gifting.
“It’s not something I’ve thought about and when I saw that nearly half had done it — 52 percent have re-gifted and or would re-gift — it’s quite a significant number,” the spokesperson told reporters.
So what items are the most common to be re-gifted? According to the survey, decorative household items, such as vases, paintings, picture frames and other trinkets are the easiest to pass on to others.
Another interesting finding: 77% of respondents said they re-gifted because the item was perfectly suited to the new recipient. The study also found that 9% of people admitted that they re-gifted out of laziness to purchase a new gift and 4% confessed that they re-gifted out of dislike for the recipient.
Okay, confession time… do you practice the art of re-gifting?