Stress no more with the Sam’s Club Gifter Stress Lifter! (CONTEST CLOSED)

By
courtney
Published: November 30, 2009Posted in: Review and GiveawayTags: , , , , , , , ,

SamsHolidayLogoRemember back when you were little and giving gifts was truly a pure, joyful expression of your feelings?  For me, there’s one in particular that I often think of when I think of myself as a child giving presents.  I was around six or seven years old and I was trying to think of a gift for my mother who was on her way home from having surgery and the subsequent hospital stay.  My father certainly would have sprung for some flowers or a small gift from the hospital gift shop, but I had an even better idea.  I went out in my backyard and wandered around for an hour, scouring the ground to find the perfect flat stone.  When I found one, I brought it inside, washed and dried it, and then I added my special idea to the stone.  I was so proud of it, too!

Picture 20My point is not so much the gift itself (for the record, all I did was draw a heart and write MOM on it – ingenious, no?) but that as a child I was so utterly and completely confident in my gift-giving abilities.  I never once questioned whether my mother would like to receive a small rock (seriously, it wasn’t even big enough to be a useful paperweight or anything).  I believed, like most kids, that the spirit in which I gave the gift mattered almost more than the gift itself.  And I think that’s actually true of the gifts that children give – when you look into their hopeful, expectant faces you can’t help but thank them profusely and tell them how special their gift is to you.

But after awhile the novelty wears off.  When your six year old nephew gives you a piece of paper with macaroni, glitter and pipe cleaners stuck haphazardly on one side, you’d be a monster if you didn’t return his infectious grin with one of your own.  When your twenty-three year old cousin gives you a set of salt & pepper shakers with “Waffle Hut” emblazoned on the side and dried syrup stuck to the bottom – there’s a problem.  There’s an even bigger problem if you’re the twenty-three year old in this example.

Buying gifts is something no one ever really explains to you – you’re just supposed to figure it out along the way.  And most Picture 17people do figure it out.  But there are always those people who are either completely out of touch with what their intended gift recipient enjoys in life or they’re so flustered by all of the options out there that they buy the first thing that crosses their path.  Thankfully, the Internet has made lots of wonderful things possible, not the least of which is the invention of the “gift guide”.  Gift guides are wonderful compilations of product suggestions based on your gift recipients’ age, interests, etc.  Essentially, they do the work for you!

Sam’s Club has the ultimate in gift guides!  The Gifter Stress Lifter is a fantastic site where you can go to create and fill out your shopping list.  You start by picking your recipient – you can choose titles such as “grandpa”, “wife”, “coach”, “friend (male)”, etc. – and then you begin the short quiz.

Picture 18The quiz is lets you input a lot of different information about the person you’re finding a gift for, which makes you feel like the quiz isn’t just a formality to sell you a predetermined product but that it’s really working to find the perfect present for that individual.  Each of six questions lets you choose from a series of images what is most fitting for your recipient – I found this to be much more fun that a typical stale quiz.  I took the quiz with my husband, Adam, in mind.  His results were that of a Caregiver, Gadget Guru and a Trendy Hipster and it returned a total of 164 possible gift ideas.  164?!  Typical gift guides give you three or four gift ideas – 164 is great!

The gift ideas that the Gifter Stress Lifter had for Adam were actually Picture 19really good.  I’m often disappointed by the results I get when I try gift guides – I find that they’re either just products they’re trying to push or stereotypical products based on the age and sex of the recipient (i.e. football tickets for a man, flowers for a woman, etc).  There’s nothing wrong with some stereotypical gifts and ideas – it’s just that I could have thought of those on my own.  So I really appreciated the ideas the Gifter Stress Lifter offered.  I’ll be curious to see what it comes up with for me!

They even have an iPhone App that you can get of the Gifter Stress Lifter!  It’s totally free and would be great to use when you’re out shopping at Sam’s Club and need some ideas about what to pick up!

WIN IT! TWO WINNERS!!! First prize is a $50 Sam’s Club gift card, second prize is a $25 Sam’s Club gift card!  To enter, tell me who is the hardest person on your list to buy for AND become a subscriber of this site (if you aren’t already)  You MUST confirm your subscription for it to count!  I check all entries and if you are not a subscriber, your comment will be deleted.  That’s it!

Comments will close on December 6, 2009 at 10 PM EST.  One comment per person, please (unless you do the extra credit). Open to US residents only. Duplicates and comments not including the above information will be disqualified. Comments are moderated. If you don’t see your comment in a reasonable amount of time, send me an email. Bloggers and non-bloggers may enter. If you don’t want to leave your email address, please be sure to check back for my announcement of the winner. Please note that winners must respond within 48 hours of being announced/contacted or another winner will be drawn.

***Apparently, some of you need a refresher course in your giveaway manners.  If you need a clue or have noticed your two-word entries being deleted, please see my previous blog post on What Not to Do When Entering Giveaways before entering.  All entries that are simply “enter me”, “wow”, “great prize”etc or entries that do not follow the directions for how to enter will be deleted and you will not be notified.  Take your ignorance elsewhere.***

This post is a part of a Sam’s Club Holidays Made Simple blogger campaign. I may have received compensation in exchange for my participation, but the views and opinions expressed are solely my own.

Extra Credit: (Since I know a lot of you are entering these giveaways multiple times, bear in mind that if you’re already a fan of Sam’s on Facebook, or already grabbed my button, etc that you can still have the extra entry.  Just comment as you usually would, making sure to note the username for verification.)

Visit my husband’s site and enter any of his giveaways!  One extra entry per giveaway.

Visit Sam’s Club’s Holiday Helper section and contribute a comment, recipe, link, suggestion, etc.  Two extra entries!!

Become a fan of Sam’s Club on Facebook – Leave your username for verification.  One extra entry.

Follow Sam’s Club on Twitter – Leave your username for verification.  One extra entry.

Enter any other giveaway on my site.  One extra entry per giveaway.

Comment on any non-giveaway post.  Leave link or name of post that you commented on.  One extra entry.

Grab my button!  Post it on your own blog and leave me the link to find it.  Two extra entries!

Follow me on twitter AND tweet about the contest. – You may do this daily for an extra entry.

Follow me on google friend connect. One extra entry.

Blog about this giveaway. It doesn’t have to be a separate post. Just include a blurb about it when you blog about other giveaways.  You may have 3 entries for this.

Click on one of the very cute buttons below and digg, stumble, fav, etc. Just let me know what you did in the comments!  One extra entry each.

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