Why are the stores in my area not selling Apple Gift Cards anymore?

I went to buy an Apple Gift card the other day and no one has them in my area. I heard that Apple is going through some kind of lawsuit but I don’t know. Anyway, I guess they don’t want my business cause if they did we would have them stocked in the stores. I am not driving for hours just to find an Apple Store to get one nor am I using my bank account to buy them online. So, if they want my business, they will keep our local stores stocked. Also those selling the cards ought to be able to reimburse those who got faulty codes and ripped off. Just putting this out there.

June 15th 2024, within the last four days they pulled them from at least my region of North Dakota. Stores don’t know why. Macintosh refuses to answer, says to ask stores. I’m guessing it’s part of this pull towards digital currency. They (Macintosh) are just to cowardly to come out and say it. Or at least give some type of explanation. Pretty sure it’s an attempt to push cash folks (like myself), towards digital.

I can’t purchase them online with cash. I’m in North Dakota and Apple gift cards have been pulled from all merchants/retailers in my area of North Dakota. This isn’t a corporate office of a store or a vender, choosing not to sell. Everything from market stores to gas stations no longer carry apple gift cards. All of them still have their gift card racks and many even have the empty spots with the Apple place tag. Apple removed them from my area. Most places might still sale them, but they don’t where I’m at. I believe the original poster, that they don’t sale them there either.

But you can’t purchase them with cash which is the problem. That’s how things get hacked

[Edited by Moderator]

They can be purchased online directly from Apple and even be emailed.

If you close to Charlotte, Greenville or Charleston you can purchase them in an Apple Retail Store.

Store List - Apple Store - Apple

Apple Gift Card - Apple

This video is short and may enlighten those posting and future community members that post about Apple Gift cards.

https://youtu.be/W3Su81KOuxw?si=msL2qg8yYcrUxwgq

My guess would be that retailers are giving into pressure from lawmakers to clean up their act. They have been far too lax on the security of these gift cards, where it is too easy for people to tamper with the packaging and gain access to the code and pin number hidden on the card, which would allow them to steal funds from an unsuspecting buyer of these cards.

Perhaps Apple is simply withdrawing their cards temporarily to figure out a more secure form of packaging?

This article goes over the main problems associated with gift cards and the current efforts to beef up the security of the current system.

https://www.propublica.org/article/maryland-gift-card-scams-prevention-act-walmart-incomm-retail

KyleYaj wrote:

I went to multiple stores in my area and couldn’t find any Apple Gift cards. What’s happening Apple?

You are certainly able to order them directly from Apple. If you were looking to purchase them at a retail location where they are displayed on a rack open to the public, then consider yourself lucky that it was not possible for you to be scammed at those locations. Review the many posts where people were able to make that purchase and found out that the retailer would not refund their money even if the scam occurred in their store.

Sebastian1233 wrote:

I got one to day I tried to redeem it but it said it didn’t work

Seems a bit off topic for the post provided by the OP, but if you are having trouble with your gift card, start here:

If you can't redeem your Apple Gift Card or App Store & iTunes Gift Card - Apple Support

After reading the other posts in this thread, if you feel that it was due to a scam carried out at the store you purchased the gift card, then you may want to contact the store where the scam occurred as they need to be protecting their customers from these people. In that case it may be related to the OP's question if the store does not have a plan in place to protect their customers and in the meantime have simply stopped selling them.

Apple doesn’t respond on these public forums. It’s unlikely Apple would know why individual merchants do not have a product in stock. You can order gift cards directly from Apple.

You can order directly from Apple using links in the support article I linked to.

Apple Gift Card - Apple

I did a web search and if Apple had quietly decided to no longer sell physical cards you'd think there would be a big fuss about it with hundreds of blog posts. The only thing I saw was something about Singapore a few years ago. This is more likely something at the corporate level of the places selling them, or possibly something at the state level. If you still see other cards being sold it is possible something that affected Apple only. Have you tried calling an Apple Store in North Dakota and check if they are still selling them there?

There has been an uptick in gift card scams involving physical cards of many companies. It may be your vendors simply decided to not bother.

Bmf1982 wrote:

I did ask people working at these stores. Either they didn’t know or all they know is that they were told to pull them from the floor and no longer sale them.

Walmart is the worst place to buy any Gift Cards and have been subject to the common gift cards scams that have been discussed in these forums. With retailers that displayed gift cards where they were open to the public to tamper with, they found that scammers were taking a bunch of the gift cards off the racks and writing down the code after scratching off the sticker. They can easily replace the sticker with ones found on Amazon, then just wait for you to activate them. Many customers had their gift cards drained before they had a chance to use them.

I would only recommend buying a gift card from a retailer that sells them secured behind a counter if not able to purchase online. If the retailer is not willing to keep their customers protected by securing the cards, then it is best that they do not sell them at all.

If you do buy one that's not secured, redeem it as soon as you get it. I buy a card for another purpose and as soon as I have paid for it I step away from the register and redeem it.

My inclination would also be to go for low value cards, and buy one at a time. That way if you are scammed you haven't lost much.

I live in southern California and I have checked 4 different stores and none of them have Apple Gift Cards. These being Walgreens, Albertsons, Walmart (Neighborhood), and Save Mart. Mind you, you can go to the gift cards section and see the apple sticker where the cards are supposed to be and when you ask an employee they say they don’t have them. I plan on checking Rite Aid or Vons soon.

I did ask people working at these stores. Either they didn’t know or all they know is that they were told to pull them from the floor and no longer sale them.