ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY: THE ONEHUNGA GIFT CARD INCIDENT OF 2024

1.1 The Commission was convened under Terms of Reference dated 3 March. Its task was to determine how a gift card, purchased in good faith at an Onehunga Countdown, came to be refused at a Palmerston North retailer on the grounds it was, quote, "too festive".

1.2 The Commission heard evidence from the complainant, Ms Deidre Whangapirita of Onehunga. Ms Whangapirita testified she purchased the card in November as a birthday gift for her sister. The card bore an image of a reindeer wearing sunglasses. Counsel Assisting submitted the reindeer was "objectively festive but not aggressively so". The Commission accepts this characterisation.

1.3 The retailer's spokesperson, called on Day 6, maintained the imagery constituted a "seasonal breach" of shop policy given the transaction occurred in late January. Under cross-examination, the spokesperson conceded no such written policy existed. She insisted the manager had "a strong feeling about it". This feeling was not entered into evidence.

1.4 On the balance of probabilities, the Commission finds the card was valid, the reindeer was benign, and the refusal was, in the words of one witness, "a load of shit". The Commission further finds the manager had recently attended a staff conference on "boundaries" and, per my mate at the station, taken the material too much to heart.

1.5 Recommendation 14: That retailers accept festive gift cards for 90 days post-Christmas, or until Waitangi Day, whichever the customer finds less irritating. Recommendation 22: That Palmerston North be issued a formal warning.

1.6 The card remains unredeemed. Ms Whangapirita's sister received a bank transfer and a note that said "sorry about Palmy".