I recently went to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a gift for someone’s bridal shower. During my brief time shopping, three different employees reminded me, “Once you’ve made your purchase, don’t forget to bring it over to the Gift Registry desk to have it wrapped!” When the customer service person was about to take the box from me I said, “I can just wrap this myself.” She scoffed, “No, no, no! We’re happy to do it for you!”

At least ten minutes later, my toes were aching, I was short of breath, and I was starting to sweat. I could not imagine what was taking so long. The gift was in a normal rectangular box and would probably have taken me three minutes to wrap. Finally, the employee walked out, proudly carrying this:

Wow, I thought, they even put the wrapped gift in a decorative shopping bag?

I thought the bag looked a little sloppy so I decided to remove it when I got home. Guess what was inside? My unwrapped gift. That purple garbage bag? The “gift wrap.” Had I purchased a large, unwieldy gift (something cylindrical, a basket perhaps?), the gift sack might be appropriate. Honestly, I’d be happy just throwing a bow on it. But a box? And ten minutes?? Just say no to the gift wrap at Bed Bath and Beyond.