So it turns out that my business partner is good friends with the district manager for the CVS in my state. I got him to call the DM and he said that CVS official policy is to accept cash, debit , and credit, for all transactions unless the item specifically reads "cash only" on the package. He also said that if the area has issues with loss, then it is possible the store will require only cash for the item. But this should be a store wide policy enforced by all employees, not an employee to employee discretional thing.
It is actually potentially illegal for an employee of a store to use their discretion on a sale to a particular customer. If I am black female, then that makes me a protected class under Title 9 and if they sell GC to a white guy but refuse to sell to me the next week that could be considered discriminatory. So the store should either 100% enforce a policy or not at all enforce it, there isn't any middle ground.
Also it appears they are making a big push to expand GC and related items, these are becoming money makers as much as condoms, cigarettes, and cheap wine are.

Someone did post the internal memo sent around cvs from corporate and it stated 5k a day.

its somewhere in the 200 pages of this thread, but i saw it as well.

a quick search and the points guy has it on his site.

http://thepointsguy.com/wp-content/u...nilla-memo.png

How? why now?

1) I see VR hanging every where (CVS), almost all accept credit card now.

2) Uncertainty about MVR (Shut down?)

3) 5% TYP period coming to the end

4) No new cards with good signup bonus

5) Points value depreciating.

Seasonal slow down on Manufactured Spending? or is it coming to slow end?

I am not sure what you are asking, but the GC business is a money maker for CVS itself. Not me.

Funny that you said this, as most stores I frequent in the past couple of weeks were totally redesigned layout wise. Almost everyone moved their GC stand to another spot and most have a much smaller stand holding alot less cards. Bigger then the ones that you used to find by the pharmacy and alot smaller then the maasive main stand they had front and center

The only unknown is if the VR will contiune to be a reg stock card

My question was in 2 folds

1) why is gift card business money maker for CVS now? (I knew but most believed it to be a loss leader)

2) Is momentum of 'Manufactured Spending' slowing down? (imho)

At my local stores this is in addition to the front of store and pharmacy racks. So an expansion.

Considering christmas just ended it sounds like your CVS has a seasonal layout plan.

Store specific GC have always been profitable. There is no fee but the store selling them gets a kickback. I suspect this is also true for VISA, MC and Amex GC but the reloads may be loss leaders as has been debated at end in this thread.

Nope, as the massive stands were there since May and Im talking about a min of 6 different stores, and the same applys to a neighboring State I hit up from time to time. In some the aisle went from say left to right to up and down, horizontal to vertical like. Items that used to be in say row 4 are now in row 8. Its not just the GC rack

Bout the only things that stayed the same were the pharmacy and fridges locations, probably too expensive to move them elsewhere

In my neck of the woods, all of the recently renovated CVS stores (three of them) have a dedicated area, just past the registers, for reloadable cards now (VR, netspend, GD, Serve etc.), which is quite large. Before, they were mixed in with other gift cards. The space dedicated to GCs has mostly remained the same as before.

I see VR everywhere (CVS) hanging on 4 slots. In the past I saw few days after stocking but now they are always full, as if no one cares.

The VR demand has come down or the supply has gone way up!

I also see lot of VRs in the CVS. But the problem with VRs is that most of the CVS have moved towards cash only. I have tried lots of CVS in Bay Area but no avail. Earlier I used to live in Boston, that was also same story. I have kind of given up on VRs now.

Are people aware that the One Vanilla Visa gift cards are also typically available at CVS? These load to BB just as easily as Vanilla Reloads and can be bought for up to $500, albeit with a $1 higher fee. I tried to purchase a Vanilla Reload locally and they said no, cash only. I came back with a One Vanilla instead and went home a happy customer.

Don't the one Vanillas require a trip to Walmart? VRs can just be done on the VR website.