I hate it when people start a sentence with "What you SHOULD have said/done ..."   but I've got one of those for "your friend". What he should have said, when she said "why didn't you buy me etc" was
"Because I already got you something much much much much better."

Then, when your friend and his wife got home, he could have surreptitiously and sneakily pawed through the bags 'til he found the wooden salad stuff his wife picked up for Christmas gifts for other people, which would hopefully have the name and phone number or web address of the vendor in question, so he could then track down said vendor and order up a whole bushel of salad thongy thingies. And on Christmas morning he could whack her with them about the head and shoulders ...