Anyone who has recently purchased a wedding gift at Macy’s knows the department store no longer provides free gift wrap for items purchased off a registry. As a consolation, they offer boxes and ribbon — which, to be fair, has long been the standard at Crate & Barrel. But here’s the caveat: those boxes come in just three sizes – none of which accommodated the $559 worth of All-Clad cookware (a rather common wedding gift) my mom and some friends recently purchased for a bride. The sales associate acted like she could do my mom a "favor" by wrapping the items for $6.50 apiece. Plus tax. Instead, my mom took her business to the dollar store, where she purchased gift bags for a total of $3. But how ridiculous that she should have had to do that. Little perks like gift wrap are the reason people shop at department stores. Strip the store of that, and there’s not much left.

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