On vacation in Honolulu, and disappointed that the entire rack of VRs were gone at a Longs location in residential Honolulu. :( . Guess I will have to shop around various Longs locations to see if I can score some VRs.

I haven't been able to find any in my residential stores here in HNL for the past while either. Let me know if you come across any. :p

When you are told cash only, do you guys ever respond with something like "I was able to use a CC yesterday?" I tried that today (I actually did get some yesterday), but was told cash only again. Do most of you just cut your losses and walk away then?

That's my understanding of best practices. Don't argue, just walk away. Come back at a different time with different cashiers/personnel. If you keep getting the same response from different staff, it's time to walk away from the store and try others.

Sometimes I'll ask nicely if we can try it, and that my understanding is that the green moneypack cards are cash only but vanilla cards are still credit.

This works about 25 percent of the time. Sometimes you get someone who says, "sure I'll try it." But usually, it escalates quickly and I just extract myself from the situation. I got into a nasty situation with a manager the other day, and I actually went out to my car to get a receipt that showed I had bought them with credit cards two days earlier. Whatever you think you'll be accomplishing if you try something like that, you're wrong. I should have just driven away quietly. Sometimes people are incapable of believing they are wrong, or, worse, if they know they are wrong, they are doubly resistant to admitting it.

This game is a marathon, not a sprint. Human nature sometimes gets the best of you, but I think you just need to smile, and say, "my mistake," and move along.

+1. I have isolated "cash only" cashiers at some stores. I avoid them, and other cashiers at the store are fine. If I see the cash only cashier, I walk out and come another day.

I show the receipt from yesterday
And the one from the other cvs i went to
And two forms of id
Then i ask to speak w store mgr
And then ask him sternly why hes discriminating against you and should you call the police? Then bring out your phone and let him see you google their number

Or yah just move on

Or you can tell them you'll use your cash card instead.

I echo this best practice. Pull out the stops within reason. <cashier name> sold me them the other day (if you have a regular cashier). I am fortunate to have a great relationship with the cashiers at two nearby stores, so when I got the "cash only" line from a new cashier yesterday I said that I had purchased the other day without issue. He called over the manager who backed me up. ^

As others have said, it's a marathon, not a sprint. A little social engineering and deference can go a long way. Never escalate the issue, and be prepared to walk away. As more and more people get into this, the more normal the behavior will become. Right now we're still having to work through some of the barriers.

Thank you for the advice. I ended up going to two more CVS locations. One told me "cash only" as well, but it was after the cashier scanned the VR, which leads me to believe that that location has it hard-coded in, while the first location was just cashier-dependent (since one sold me two VRs for CC the day before). I did find one location that sold me two VRs. I small-talked the cashier too :D

Do you not think that they will get suspicious if they see you come in, see them, and then leave?

Come on though. You have every right to walk in a store, stay as long (or as short) as you like, and leave when you like. If you're really concerned, scope out the cashiers, and if it's one of the bad ones, spend one minute "shopping" in an aisl,e and then just leave.

I normally just give them the finger, point to my Amex then leave. That's a best practice, right?

No. You are being too friendly :D

I don't know if that's such a good idea. I talked to a manager at another retailer who told me she had a fraudster try to buy bunch of GCs(just like me) just before me. She said that she watched him check the register for who's up front and go around the store looking all suspicious and then try to
make the purchase with stolen cc. We had a nice chat about her experience and my experience with that particular retailer.