Stop The Fruitcake Madness! Survey Reveals What Employees Don't Like in Corporate Gifts; Gap Inc. Business

Direct Offers Tips to Keep Your Gifts Off that List

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- According to a recent public opinion survey, nearly half (48%) of U.S. employees who received a corporate gift in the past year didn't like the item.

The most common complaint cited was that the gifts received weren't useful (32%). Following closely behind (at 24%) in employees' list of top complaints were gifts that were "cheaply made."

Wondering what gifts have the worst reputation? While paper weights and calendars were at the top of the list, other survey respondents mentioned coffee mugs, stuffed animals, pens and hams. What's worse? A full eight percent of those surveyed have received the dreaded fruitcake!

In fact, employees disliked their gifts so much that many ended up being passed off or thrown in the trash -- 59% of employees who received a corporate gift said they did not keep their gifts. Almost half (45%) reported throwing away a corporate gift while nearly a quarter admitted to "re-gifting" the item to a friend or family member (22%) or donating the gift to charity (23%). Another 19% confessed to hiding a disappointing gift in their closet. More than half of the men surveyed just threw their gifts away (54%) compared to one third of the women (32%).

Keith Mercier of Gap Inc. Business Direct, which commissioned the survey, said, "This survey quantified something we've heard anecdotally ... there are a lot of bad corporate gifts out there at the holidays. In fact, 'bad' may be a charitable way to describe some of the gifts that people received -- items like stuffed animals, a shoeshine kit, and a salad bowl set."

What do employees want? According to Mercier, "Employees prefer gifts that make them feel appreciated. Why give a coffee mug or fruitcake when you can give a personalized Old Navy fleece jacket or Gap shirt?"

Give employees a gift they'll want to keep this holiday season from the brands that they know and shop. Gap Inc. Business Direct offers corporate sales of gift cards and premium, customized apparel from Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy.

Items are available for men and women in a range of cuts and sizes so employers can purchase branded apparel that actually fits. For example, fitted polo t-shirts, vintage denim jackets and performance fleece from Gap and Old Navy.

In addition to selecting from a wide variety of stylish, popular clothing and accessories, Gap Inc. Business Direct customers can use the new Logo Center, a powerful tool enabling full customization of any apparel item in the Gap Inc. Business Direct catalog. With abundant options for styles, designs and treatments, the Logo Center allows customers to create custom logos on a variety of clothing and accessories.

About Business Direct

Launched in 1996, Gap Inc.'s Business Direct began by selling the gift cards for corporate sales. Today, Business Direct offers an expanded collection of premium clothing and accessories from Gap and Old Navy as well as gift cards from Banana Republic, Gap and Old Navy. For more information or to request the Fall/Holiday 2005 catalog, please go to http://www.gapincbusinessdirect.com.

About Gap Inc.

Gap Inc. is a leading international specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories and personal care products for men, women, children and babies under the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Forth & Towne brands. Fiscal 2004 sales were $16.3 billion. Gap Inc. operates about 3,000 stores in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Japan. For more information, please visit http://www.gapinc.com.

Survey Methodology

Harris Interactive(R) fielded the online survey on behalf of Gap Inc. Business Direct between October 18 and 20, 2005 among a nationwide sample of 1,327 U.S. adults age 18 and older who are employed full time, part time, or self-employed, of whom 402 received a corporate gift in the past year. The data were weighted to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity and propensity to be online. In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 4 percentage points. Sampling error for the sub-sample of employed adults who received a corporate gift in the past year +/- 7.5 percentage points.

Contact: Sarah Anderson Jaymie Gustafson

Gap Inc. Zeno Group

415-427-3458 202-965-7811 SOURCE Gap Inc.

-0- 11/21/2005

/CONTACT: Sarah Anderson of Gap Inc., +1-415-427-3458; or Jaymie Gustafson of Zeno Group for Gap Inc., +1-202-965-7811 /

/Web site: http://www.gapinc.com

http://www.gapincbusinessdirect.com /