Abba Zabba

For Christmas/Hanukkah, 3 separate people got me $50 Barnes and Noble gift cards. And I had part of one left over from a previous holiday, with $35 or so. Tonight I decided to spend some of that $185 in gift cards. So I went on to the website, bought a bunch of stuff, and prepared to check out.

But here's the catch: You can only use one gift card per order. I had to go back and split my big order into several smaller orders. And these orders will never be exactly the size of a gift card. If I put together an order for $48, I have $2 left over. And I can't spend that with another gift card; I have to keep the card around until I make a non-card order, then get $2 off. Or I can put together a slightly different order, for $53. Then I need to spend $3 of real money, even though I still have a ton of gift cards left over. So basically, I'm screwed either way. (Screwed a very small amount, but still screwed.)

The thing is, this isn't free for Barnes and Noble either. Their costs to package and ship an order are pretty flat (I assume), so they'd be better off if I made one big order. But because of how they handle gift cards, I have to make a bunch of small orders. Obviously that works out better for them, or else they wouldn't do it. But it's still annoying.