Buying a gift for a casual friend can be a bit more difficult. When you are with them listen to what they talk about and if your at their home look at what you see around you.
This would go for any friend of course but if it is a close friend it doesn’t neccesarily mean you will choose the proper gift. Do you know their favorite color? What they like to do for hobbies? Let me give you an example, one of my best friends happens to also be my sister and for years she gave me very, shall we say unique gifts? What she was doing was picking out things she liked and assuming I liked the same things.
We went window shopping several times and as I oohed and aahed over certain things she finally seen what types of things I like and I must say her gifts are now lovely and in my taste.
You can always ask the person if there is something special they have been wanting, maybe have them make a wish list so you can choose from the list.
Give your friend the type of gift you would like to receive but in their taste not yours.
Know your friend. Watch for colors they may wear often or colors that are repeated in their home. Notice things they have more than one of such as collections. Keep a little notebook on things that you observe and you can refer to it at gift time.
If you are at a loss give them a gift certificate and let them pick out something for themselves, although to me I would prefer a gift that shows the person took time and thought into getting for me. But there can be times you are just plain stuck for an idea especially for those people that seem to already have everything and I know some of those and it is hard choosing a gift for them.
Everyone eats so you might want to treat them to dinner out or perhaps give them a day of your time in which you will clean their house, babysit or anything they may consider a treat.