To some, they're the ultimate present, allowing the recipient to pick out a gift that fits and they're sure to like.

To others, they're the ultimate in thoughtlessness, a way of saying, "I want to give you something, but I have no idea what you'd enjoy."

However you feel about them, one thing is clear this coming holiday season: gift cards are more popular, in Helena and across the country, than ever before.

"We've convinced buyers that the recipient would rather pick out their own gift than have you do it for them," said Gordon Flanders, assistant professor of marketing at Carroll College. "The way we're showing we care now is we're buying you the card from your favorite department store, your favorite restaurant, your favorite discount store."

Flanders said businesses like gift cards for several reasons. For one, they extend the holiday season from the fourth quarter of the year into the first quarter of the next, as gift card recipients show up in January to use their cards and often spend a little more money in the process.

Also, while half of all gift cards are redeemed within 30 days of receipt, many are never redeemed fully or at all, meaning the store keeps the money and doesn't part with any merchandise.

Some retailers begin charging fees on unused gift cards after a period of time, though that's illegal in Montana, where gift cards never expire.

Christian Piper, manager of Target in Helena, didn't have any sales figures but said that the local store sells more gift cards every year.

"It's very popular with the people who don't know what to get someone," he said.

Piper noted that the increasing use of gift cards has changed the way the store handles merchandise. The selection is now better after Christmas than it once was, he said, as retailers want to have popular items on hand for people to spend their gift cards on.

"You want to have a good music selection, a good electronics selection for people with gift cards," he said.

Downtown Helena still issues paper gift certificates that can be redeemed at some 120 businesses around town, but director Jim McHugh said the growth in popularity matches that of plastic cards from individual retailers.

Five years ago, Downtown Helena issued gift certificates totaling $34,000. In the year that ended last June 30, that figure had jumped to $83,600.

McHugh said the growth was helped by area businesses, which would buy bunches of gift certificates for use as "employee thank-you's, appreciations, things of that sort. As that began to expand, people would then come in themselves and pick one up for the babysitter or the soccer coach."

At Universal Athletic Service in the Capital Hill Mall, manager Shane Tomsheck said the store is gearing up for its first holiday season offering plastic gift cards that can be reloaded with additional cash. The cards have been popular in their first several months of availability, he said.

"Usually it's parents or grandparents, probably grandparents more because they don't know so much what to get," he said.

Tomsheck said he doesn't see a downside to the cards from the retailer's perspective. They help cut down on returns and exchanges, he said, because recipients can come to the store and pick out something the right size the first time.

"And you know the customer will be in to get something," he said. "Sold is sold."

Even stores with bigger ticket items are seeing growth in gift certificates. At Bob Ward's, manager Eric Tillberg said the store sells gift cards of $100 or more that customers use for fishing rods or hunting rifles. As a result, he said, gift cards are bought almost exclusively by adults.

Flanders noted that gift cards have also changed the way retailers' holiday sales are accounted for. While stores collect money up front when they sell a gift card, generally accepted accounting principles dictate that they can't count the cash as revenue until the card is redeemed. As a result, fourth-quarter sales may appear weaker than they actually are, as the cash from gift card sales is carried as a liability until the cards are redeemed for merchandise, often in the following quarter or later.

Flanders, who teaches consumer behavior and buyer psychology, predicts the popularity of gift cards will eventually plateau, and the plastic cards will never completely replace the actual buying of a gift.

"What happens on Christmas morning when people are opening presents, if all anyone is receiving are gift cards?" he said. "Seeing all those gifts under the tree has been relegated to a few envelopes. Now what new gift are you going to enjoy on that Christmas morning?"

Reporter John Harrington: 447-4080 or john.harrington@

helenair.com