Ok, so I’m cleaning out my wallet and find a receipt from a birthday party my 5 year old daughter attended.  We had no idea what to give the birthday girl, but knew she loved princesses.  So, we do the mad dash to Kmart to pick up a grab-and-go gift… my daughter insists on getting a princess Barbie.  (She LOVES princess Barbies and so do her friends.)   Oh, and a gift bag… and a bow, because as usual, I’m running late and have to go from store to party.  Sound familiar?

So, lets have some fun with the math shall we? (This is one wild word problem. Stick with it! You’ll appreciate it, seriously.)
Above is the actual gift receipft from that party.

Check it out:

Gift = $10.99
Gift Bag = $1.89
Bow = $1.99
Total = $14.87

(26% of the expense was for the gift wrap)

Now, that was just our ONE single gift.  But at the party, there were 10 kids there who probably spent about the same.

Gift =  $109.90                        Wrap = $38.80

And that was just one party.  Surely there were at least 10 birthday parties across Vermont that day?

Gift = $1,099.00                        Wrap = $388.00

And surely if there were that many in Vermont, then there would have been that many in all the other 49 states, right?

Gift = $54,950.00                          Wrap = $19,400.00

Oh, and that’s just in one weekend.  Surely there must be just as many birthday parties in the other 51 weekends in the year, right?

Gift = $2,857,400.00                        Wrap =  $1,008,800.00

Oh, and that princess Barbie we bought?  Yeah… she already had that one.

So, we have as many as 260,000 princess Barbies… that yeah… they may already have.

Now picture this.

What if these party hosts use Inlu to let everyone know what’s really wanted? Imagine if everyone pitches in their contribution to a snazzy $100 gift (like maybe the princess Barbie castle to go with? ) in lieu of ten, $10 gifts (that yeah… she probably already has). It would reduce the sheer number of “things” without touching the feel good effects of giving and receiving something awesome.

And gee, in lieu of $1,008,800.00 spent on wrapping paper and bows, maybe they ask guests to pitch in for charities too.   Pretty cool to pitch in for wanted (and not currently owned) gifts, and over one million dollars go to benefit charities across the country, right?

Finally, lets expand this a bit, shall we?  This is not just about kids birthday gifts.  Every week across the US there are adults having celebrations for their special birthdays, baby showers for moms having number 2,3, even 4, and there are wedding showers for folks who don’t need more flatware.  There are all kinds of events happening every week where the old school grab-a-gift occurs.

So for the sake of argument, lets say that for every kid’s birthday party, there are two other gift generating parties every weekend, right?

Gift =  $8,572,200.00                                    Wrap =  $3,026,400.00

Wouldn’t if feel awesome if we (you, your friends and family, and us) all worked together to send over $3million in what would have gone to wrapping so many small gifts, instead to charitable organizations that really need the support? And to know that the gift recipients all got what they really wanted?  Awesome.

Having slight math geek tendencies, we ponder these calculations everyday.  It’s what keeps us going and determined to provide people with a smarter way to be the perfect party host…So that maybe, in lieu of a quarter of a million receipts looking like this… (for gifts they already have…) maybe people will give Inlu a try.

Be a host/hostess hero – make gifting easy for everyone, save the world, and make that special someone very very happy.

Post byMonica, aka Shoulderpads

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