Update 10/14/20: These brands are now appearing in stores. I saw the Choice Card at Kroger the other day, while reader TimDTW reports seeing the Holiday Favorites card in-store as well.
I’ve also seen the new Happy brands in-store recently too, although I can’t remember if that was Kroger or Lowe’s.
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In addition to all the new Happy gift card brands and Giving Good gift cards, Blackhawk Network has launched a couple of other new brands which appear to work in a similar way to Happy gift cards.
Here are details about the new cards and the retailers at which they can be redeemed.
Holiday Favorites Gift Card
Eligible Retailers
- Macy’s
- Barnes & Noble
- Wayfair
- Lowe’s
- Grubhub
- Lululemon
- Ulta Beauty
The Choice Card Gift Card
Eligible Retailers
- McCormick & Schmick’s
- Nordstrom Rack
- Spafinder
- Ulta Beauty
- REI
Thoughts On These New Brands
Blackhawk Network is clearly trying to capitalize on the increase in people buying gift cards over the holidays, hence the dozen or so new brands they’ve just launched.
Both of these particular cards give somewhat interesting redemption options, but note that these are ‘Swap’ cards. That means you have to redeem them online at redeem.giftcards.com. It means it’s not possible to, say, use a Holiday Favorites gift card at Lowe’s to buy an Amazon gift card. If all you wanted to do was convert these cards to a gift card for one of the eligible brands listed on that card though, the fact that they’re Swap cards makes that process more convenient as it can be done from the comfort of your home rather than having to buy them in-store.
Similar to the Giving Good gift cards, these gift card brands are so new that it’s not clear whether they’re going to be classed as Happy gift cards when it comes to in-store and online promotions. If they are, that’s great news as it’s always good to have additional options.
It’s interesting that Nordstrom Rack is listed as an option on The Choice gift cards because Nordstrom Rack gift cards can be used at Nordstrom and vice versa. It would therefore seemingly have made more sense for the retailer to be listed as Nordstrom, although there must be some reasoning behind why it’s listed that way. Perhaps Nordstrom didn’t want to be seen as devaluing its brand, whereas it’s less of an issue with Nordstrom Rack seeing as it’s like an outlet store.
One other thing to be aware of is that there are a couple of different designs for the Holiday Favorites gift card. One has a penguin (above) and the other has fir and holly (below). All the eligible retailers are the same though.