For the holidays, my very generous employer gave me a few gifts. One of these gifts was a gift card to Caribou Coffee. I’m not really much of a coffee drinker, let alone a hot beverage drinker. As far as hot drinks go, I would probably prefer a tea. However, I figured I could find some use for the gift card. I don’t know when it started, but one day a couple weeks ago someone in my office was going to Caribou, and so I opted to go with. That was my undoing. This week I’ve gone there 3 times, same with last week. My drink of choice: the Iced Latte. Mmmmm!

It kills me because this is exactly what retailers want to happen with gift cards. You get a gift card and even if you weren’t really predisposed to shopping at that particular store, you go in to spend your gift card. One of two things happens. Either you buy more than the value of the gift card or you find something you like and continue shopping there after spending the value of your gift card. The average amount spent when using a gift card is 140% of the gift card value.

I’m now just another one of those yupie suckers who spend $3 a day on a coffee drink. Someone shoot me.