we le@)a Consolidation situation » Gift card consolidation deserves some exploring Naomi Ambrose Staff Writer Have an idea for a story? M opinions@theotherpress.ca F some of us, every week is gift card receival week. One week, we might get a $20 card from our colleagues. On week two, we might have received a $25 oneas a token of appreciation for our volunteer work. Before you know it, you have a treasure chest full of them. To save yourself the hassle of carrying a 20-pound purse full of gift certificates, you approach the barista, the cashier, or the server to ask whether you can transfer the credit from one card onto another. You have high hopes, but then you get this unexpected response: “Sorry, we dont do that anymore. We don’t want to commit fraud.” I’m sure we have witnessed this scenario or heard this response at some point at a retail outlet. I recently observed this situation and then began to wonder. Is it fraud if a customer is just trying to reduce the number of gift cards in his or her wallet? Who wants to walk around with dozens of cards from the same retailer? The point to take away in this consolidation situation is that the supposed fraudulent nature of gift card consolidation is questionable— if the customer’s sole intention is to decrease the weight of his or her CC Is it fraud if a customer is just trying to reduce the number of gift cards in his or her purse? On the other hand, maybe some retailers are not concerned about the environment. Maybe the retailers are only concerned about generating profit. Consumed by their quest for profit maximization, some retailers may be quick to cry fraud—if a customer's request may result in a loss of credit. Ifa customer wants to transfer his card balances onto one gift card, this request would mean that some would be left empty, without credit or balance. However, retailers purse, wallet, or handbag. Maybe retailers can look at the act of gift certificate consolidation as an unconventional way to recycle. Although I’ve never seen the creation of a gift card, in this age of advanced technology I’m sure it’s possible to recreate, reactivate, reset, or reload one that previously had some credit. This reuse of previously activated gift certificates could eventually help to reduce the number of plastic items shouldn't despair because the buying and receiving of gift cards won't decrease, according to marketing scholar Dan Horne. In an article from the Journal of Consumer Marketing, Horne wrote, “Consumer interest in giving and receiving gift cards continue to grow.” Horne states that many more cards will be used and sold. Retailers kindly take note: No worries if a few customers request to transfer their card balance onto one card, because your profit pot of gold still awaits you. that fill up our landfills. People with mental illnesses arent Halloween monsters » Why we need to ditch the straitjacket costumes and ‘asylum’-themed haunted houses Image via HalloweenCostumes.com Bex Peterson Editor-in-Chief really loved Fright Nights at Playland the two times that I went. I loved the spooky atmosphere, the thrill of going on some of my favourite rides at night, and the genuinely entertaining and well-designed haunted houses. I loved it all... except one distinctly uncomfortable corner of the park, and the one house I refused to step inside: The “Asylum”. It’s your classic “terrifying mental hospital” fare—cackling doctors, nurses wielding comically large needles, patients screaming and thrashing about in straitjackets. Spooky, right? The concept of the asylum seems like a staple of the campy Halloween atmosphere. Many horror movies have an element of the asylum baked in, and plenty of Halloween stores sell madhouse-themed props and costumes (seriously, Party City has a whole section of their website dedicated to it). For most people, I’m sure, it’s a harmless good time. Some might even shake their heads in a removed kind of sympathy; “Man, it sure used to suck for crazy people back in the day, huh? Glad it’s not like this anymore.” I can see about a million problems with all this, but I'll try to boil it down to 6¢ two main ones: Making already vulnerable people out to be monsters is never a good idea and exploiting the real-life problems of abuse in mental health care facilities for fun and profit is gross. You might not think that turning mental illness into campy horror fun has any real-world impact. After all, you might argue, tons of violent killers are like this, It’s contributing to a stereotype that is factually untrue. Consolidation situation Stop documenting your child’s life on social media Rants in your pants e ...and more! } Congratulations ! ala eeja ta ees Photo by Billy Bui because I thought it was morally wrong at the time—it’s because it was personally painful to see parts of my experience being portrayed as campy horror. It kept me from talking about the more alienating aspects of my mental illness for a long time because I was so afraid of being seen as a monster. Even when mentally ill people are portrayed as the tragic victims of evil doctors for horror purposes, I get uncomfortable because abuse in the mental health care community is a genuine problem. As a queer person, I’ve experienced my own fair share of “horror” from mental health care professionals, including so the horror is just reflecting real life! The problem here is that it’s contributing to a stereotype that is factually untrue. According to several statistics, not only are people with mental health problems just as unlikely to commit violent crimes as neurotypical people, but we're over 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime ourselves. I say “we” and “our” because I live with mental illness, and I can tell you that this dehumanization has a personal impact on me. When I avoided the “Asylum” part of the Fright Nights experience, it wasn’t one psychologist who implied that he could “fix” my sexuality with his treatment program. There are still plenty of places which see anything other than heterosexuality as a sign of insanity, and shock therapy is still encouraged as a cure—forgive me if I don’t laugh in spooky delight when I see this used as a jump scare ina haunted house. If you do go to Fright Night this year, I know I can’t make you boycott the Asylum attraction. I only ask that you try to imagine if those actors in straitjackets were all trying to look and sound like you. Would it still be fun? Or would it be terrifying for an entirely different reason?