04:17 PM MST on Friday, November 26, 2004

By Lynda Edwards / Arizona Daily Star

Shopping malls the Friday after Thanksgiving often resemble "Night of the Living Dead" — but with much more energetic zombies. Park Place Mall clerks giggled and shivered describing how customers ran across the parking lot before 6 a.m. to tear at store doors.

But in Borders Books Music & Cafe, Anuta Sepulveda found a perfect Christmas gift for her 9-year-old nephew at a rack of gift cards.

"He loves 'Goosebumps' books," said Sepulveda, referring to the popular series of spooky folk tales and ghost stories. "But I'm not sure which ones he collected. He'll love using a plastic card to buy whatever he needs whenever he wants, like a grown-up."

Sepulveda is part of a retail phenomenon. More than 74.3 percent of Americans will buy $17.3 billion worth of gift cards this Christmas, according to the National Retail Federation. That's up from 69.9 percent last holiday season. The average shopper will spend $108.28 on the bright colored, plastic slivers.

Some Border's gift cards are packaged with four truffles from Joseph Schmidt Confectioners. Borders manager Michael Fenlason at Park Place believes the candy reassures customers who think a gift card may be too impersonal, like giving cash.

But research shows that gift card stigmas are fading fast.

"Gift certificates were considered a lazy shopper's Christmas present but gift cards triggered a huge shift in attitudes, especially among young shoppers," said Phil Rist, managing director of BIGresearch. His Ohio-based firm conducts surveys for the retail federation. "In this economy, they don't want to spend money on an extravagant gift the recipient will seldom use."