With a slow down in the economy giving gift cards to people can end  up being a waste of money.  Yes, it is great to get a gift from someone and be able to shop at one of your favorite stores, but there are some new perils involved in using gift cards these days. 

Many of the smaller store fronts are starting to contract.  This means they are closing their doors in unprofitable markets.  A great example of this is Starbucks.  Starbucks is known for its overlapping territory deployment of retail locations.  This means that you could (and frequently did) end up with a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks.  The closing of one of these type of stores will not affect people who live in larger cities due to the existance of many more, but if you live in a more rural area where there is only one of a store there is a real chance that it could close.  Linens N Things going into bankruptcy rocked a lot of markets and there may be more retailers to come.  So when purchasing a gift card for someone I wold stick to the major retailers like Target and Wal-Mart and stay away from the specialty box stores.