When restaurants were shut down during the Stay at Home order in North Carolina, customers showed their support by purchasing gift cards from their favorite spots. The gift cards were a temporary relief for restaurants at the time, bringing in cash flow as restaurants rushed to add takeout and curbside delivery. More than six months later, many of those gift cards are still in our wallets.

“It’s been really, really hard for restaurants, so all that support was super helpful,” says Jeff Tonidandel, who owns Haberdish, Crepe Cellar, Growler’s Pourhouse, and upcoming Supperland with his wife, Jamie Brown. “Not just from a dollar amount, but the thoughtfulness and seeing how much people cared really meant a lot, and I think helped us get through.”

Now that restaurants have reopened their dining rooms, though at a limited capacity, is it okay to spend those gift cards? If you’re experiencing financial difficulties, of course. If you’re not, the answer is a little more complex. Though dining rooms are opening, restaurants are still barely hanging on — and the money brought in as customers bought gift cards is likely long gone.

“It’s a terrible time for businesses to be operating in the food and beverage space,” says Kris Reid, the president of the non-profit Piedmont Culinary Guild. “Anybody that has purchased a gift card, they basically gave a loan to a business to keep their lights on a little bit longer.”

Reid says she considered the gift cards she purchased as a donation to her favorite restaurants, and didn’t even bother keeping the physical cards. She likens the gift cards to micro-loans, except the businesses have no say in when those loans are repaid. In pre-pandemic times, 30 percent of gift cards were never turned in, Reid says. She hopes to see that number much higher as restaurants recover from the pandemic. 

While one gift card isn’t going to change whether a restaurant survives, there are ways to use them thoughtfully. Dining out on a weeknight, for example, when restaurants are struggling to fill their socially-distant dining rooms is better than booking a table on a sold-out Saturday night. Tonidandel suggests using your gift cards to order that pricey bottle of wine you’ve wanted to try, an extra round of cocktails, or find another way to upgrade your dining experience. If you are using a gift card, tipping in cash based on the full amount is a good practice. And though restaurants are open again, their financial difficulties haven’t eased up just yet, even though those difficulties aren’t as visible. 

“It’s obvious when we’re closed that we’re in the financial situation we’re in,” Tonidandel says. “And when we’re half open, every restaurant is going to be in a different financial situation. I think the story’s changed a little bit, but it’s still a fight every day, and we’re still treading water.” 

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