Originally Posted by StartinSanDiego

I chalk those up to "out of the ordinary request that normal customers don't ask for," in the spirit of nwflyboy's post. For a $3-4 gift card, can't you just drain it when you're buying groceries? At the grocery store, they actually know how to drain small denomination gift cards and it's not an odd request. With the volume of grocery stores and cashiers available at grocery stores, you can do this and nobody will bat an eye. Compare that to your one or two nearby Staples stores, with one or two managers and limited number of cashiers, to whom you most likely already stand out. I don't like to do anything that calls MORE attention to my transactions.