Include a receipt with that holiday gift
Alert the followers of Emily Post. And tell other authors of famous etiquette books that it's time to update some of the rules: Including a sales receipt with a holiday gift is no longer as gauche as eating your salad with the wrong fork or ordering a blush zinfandel at dinner.
So proclaims the National Federation of Retailers, a trade group of merchants that perhaps has a vested interest in the dos and don'ts of holiday shopping.
"The stigma of gift receipts is diminishing among Americans," said the federation, which pointed to the results of a recent survey it commissioned to back up its claim.
According to the survey, 58.6 percent of respondents said they enclose a gift receipt most of the time or some of the time when giving a gift.
Indeed, the federation suggests that including a receipt with a gift rises to the level of a thoughtful and considerate act.
"Whether it’s a toy, an appliance, a DVD, or a sweater, gifts of all shapes and sizes can be easily returned when a gift receipt is attached," Tracy Mullin, the federation's president and chief executive, said in a statement. "In this economy, no one wants to worry that a present will be a duplicate, or go unused, so many people are relying on gift receipts to make the returns process easier."
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