Amazon’s New Patent May Prevent Bad Gift-Giving

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Avoid re-gifting that god-awful sweater from your grandmother every year. (via It’s Your Money)

It’s not exactly in the spirit of the holidays, but Amazon.com has patented a procedure that would allow Amazon users to completely get around receiving a gift from someone who, let’s just say, has poor choice in presents. (Aunt Betty, I’m looking right at you.)

(Read about the last-minute procrastinators who bought their gifts right before Christmas.)

While the logistics of it all are still up in the air, one of the ideas is that consumers could flag users and then vet their gift-buying choices. That would allow them to decide whether they wanted that person’s generosity or not.

The move is more in the spirit of the almighty dollar than that of Christmas. But an estimated 30 percent of gifts bought online are returned, and the costs of shipping and returning those unwanted items and then getting them back on store shelves are high.

See more about Amazon’s new project at It’s Your Money.