newjerseynewsroom.com

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The Mets' tie that was still in the original box when you found it in the closet last week. That plastic thing you were given that doesn't easily slice and dice cauliflower like the barker in the 3 a.m. Channel 9 commercial said it would. That complete set of "Alabama, Heart of Dixie" drinking glasses your brother-in-law gave you last year.

Wait, here's an idea. And it's not like nobody's doing it. More than a third of New Jerseyans admit to "regifting" — taking a gift they received and giving it to someone else.

According to a poll made public Monday by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind, 38 percent of New Jerseyans say they regift. But among those who admit to engaging in the practice, the majority (72 percent) say they do so just "once in a while." One in five admits to doing it "sometimes." Just a handful (8 percent) of the regifters say they do it regularly.

"The popularity of regifting is driven by many things for different people," Prof. Burçak Ertimur at FDU's Silberman College of Business, said. "For some, it's thrift in difficult economic times, or it's a way to get around annoyingly high expectations about gift-giving. It's also awareness of, or guilt over, how much stuff goes into the landfill. But the main reason might be just the sheer volume of stuff we have."

The majority of regifters (60 percent) say they do it primarily because the gift is better suited for someone else. In line with this finding, relatives (23 percent) and friends (33 percent) are the most common targets for regifts, followed by co-workers (13 percent) and then someone in the community like a child's teacher, the mail carrier or the mechanic (19 percent).

Another motivation to regift is the desire to get rid of an unwanted gift (22 percent). The desire to save time (5 percent), money (7 percent) or storage space (5 percent) are at the bottom of the list.

Household income is not correlated to regifting. "We were surprised that economic concerns do not play a bigger role in regifting," Ertimur said.

But Ertimur also said, "You don't necessarily have to worry about getting a regift this holiday season." Only 10 percent of New Jerseyans say they plan to regift this holiday season and, of those who are planning to regift, about half expect to regift items for the holidays, while half say they'll regift after the holidays.

"Regifting after the holidays just makes sense," Ertimur said, "because you may receive gifts that might better fit with someone else's tastes and that you don't really need."

What about getting caught? An overwhelming majority of regifters (88 percent) express confidence that they have not been caught regifting.

On the other hand, 53 percent of New Jerseyans say they think that they have received a gift that was a regift. Just 29 percent think they've never been the target of a regift. Another 18% aren't sure.

And what of it? Nearly two out of five (38 percent) New Jerseyans say they dislike the practice of regifting. And researchers note that a plurality of liberals (46 percent) like regifting, while a similar plurality of conservatives (46 percent) dislike regifting. Men by a margin of 41 percent to 27 percent dislike the practice, but women split 36 percent to 37 percent.

Among the survey's other findings: younger folks (18-29 years old) are more likely to regift than any other age group. Forty-seven percent of 18-29-year-olds say they regift, compared with 38 percent in the 30-44 age bracket and 37 percent in the 45-59 age bracket.

The poll of 601 adults statewide was conducted by telephone from Nov. 15 through Nov. 21, and including those who regift and those who do not. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.