Every year, the super-consultants at Deloitte LLP ask people whether they’re interested in receiving and giving any gift cards this holiday season. We used to love the concept: Back in 2007, 69% of people said that they were interested in receiving the plastic cash replacers. This year, that number is down to 37%.

Results of different surveys differ, which indicates that maybe small surveys aren’t accurate for this kind of thing, or that the answers really depend on how a sample is selected, and on how questions are worded. What we can say conclusively is that not everyone wants a gift card.

No matter how they feel about receiving gift cards, surveys still show that more than half of people plan to buy gift cards for someone this holiday season, a number which would probably go up considerably if you polled people on the way home from work on the day before they see the person they’re buying a gift for. 43% of people in the Deloitte survey said that they plan to buy some gift cards this year.

Most of Us Don’t Want a Gift Card This Year [Wall Street Journal]

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