Sometimes you just get lucky

When I went into Borders yesterday with an 11-year-old gift certificate, I fully expected them to tell me it had expired and wouldn’t have even complained much if they had.



I got up to the counter to pay and the clerk said, “I’ve never seen one like this. It may not scan.” He called over another more senior sales clerk who had actually been around in 1998 and vaguely remembered seeing these. He was willing to give it a try.

We were incredulous when the clerk scanned the barcode and it was recognized!

So instead of having to whip out my Visa card, I was actually issued a modern-day gift card loaded with my balance of $12.42.

Borders may be not be thriving these days, but they have done something right in the area of automation. Bravo to them for making good on an ancient piece of paper!