I’ve always thought that. You are basically reducing the value of your money and giving the company money to spend without having to provide a product. And inevitably some cards will be lost or not completely used and the company benefits.

Companies see this as pure profit and people buy them, so why would they give discounts and lose that profit?

I see a lot of restaurants around me do discount gift cards around the end of the year. It's usually really great value if you eat there already. $100 for $75 is pretty common.

Yeah, but why do people buy them? It's just exchanging money for inferior money.

It is halfway between buying something they like and just giving them cash by giving them money to spend on a limited amount of things. Yes, it is inferior money that only exists because of obligated consumerism gift buying.

There is one semi valid reason which is wanting to buy something online which you can't buy with cash. In those cases it is also inferior to something like a debit card because you have to put a specific amount on the card that most likely does not match what you want to spend.

Probably the same reason people want to give homeless people food instead of money, to try and limit the opportunity for poor decisions.

It's the "I need to give a gift" mentality people have, specifically old people. I have told Grandma/Grandpa that I don't need birthday gifts and such, but they just keep giving gift cards. Because not giving something makes them think they're bad. While companies make profit, I'd honestly like straight cash over gift cards.