Retail Gift Card Association Announces New Members
The Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA), a trade association originally formed last October, has announced the addition of Darden Restaurants, AMC Entertainment, Disney, JCPenney, Lowe’s Home Improvement, L.L.Bean, Foot Locker, Bass Pro Shops, Bon Ton, SpaFinder and Giant Eagle to its membership. The RGCA - "established by retailers for retailers" - says it "understands the need to promote a more accurate depiction of the practices, sales and terms related to the closed loop gift card market."
Work streams for 2009-2010 include industry education, legislative focus, sales data aggregation and advocating for self-regulation. The RGCA encourages on-going awareness and education via monthly webinars that include many of the critical topics and issues facing retail gift cards, including state and federal regulation, product performance, dormancy fees, consumer interests, and product trends.
Initial discussions between RGCA Board Members and various regulatory agencies have opened the door for future recommendations from the RGCA to help structure consumer-friendly policies.
“We are very encouraged by the response we are receiving from the regulators,” noted Carman Wenkoff, co-president of the RGCA and Card Program Manager for the Subway Card programs, “by uniting our individual voices as one, the retail industry has more opportunity to educate local and national law makers about the benefits of gift cards.”
“Our industry recognized that we did not have a support system to unite and promote closed loop gift card usage”, stated Matt Davies, RGCA Board Member , “together with our peers we created an association that will proactively address gift card concerns and issues; benefit consumers and make it easier for everyone to understand gift card products and services.”
Membership in the Retail Gift Card Association is open to retailers, restaurants, and travel-and-entertainment merchants that issue closed-loop gift cards in North America and whose primary revenue is not derived from gift cards. Founding members of the RGCA include Applebees, Best Buy, Home Depot, Limited Brands, Marriot, Nike, and Subway.
For more information about the Retail Gift Card Association and how to become a member, contact Rebekka Rea at 405-475-2902 or vial email: rebekkarea@thergca.org
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