I rarely shop at Vons/Safeway, but today I did. They had a big sign posted on all gift card displays reading:
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY (Gift Card Mall logo)
All Gift Card purchases with a CREDIT CARD (AMEX, Discover, MasterCard or VISA) will be limited to a maximum of $200 or 4 Gift Cards per transaction, per customer, per day. Gift Card purchases made with cash, check, or PIN Debit cards will be limited to $1,999.99 or 20 cards per transaction, per customer, per day.
Which seemed kinda silly to me, since they only had $25 V/MGCs in stock. Who in their right mind would go through the trouble and expense (service charge) of giving someone a $25 GC when they could just give that person two paper bills?
I checked the same store 2 months ago and they had plenty of $100s, so it seems that the denomination is going down all the time.