I went in my local Walmart to get an apple gift card and I saw in all the areas in the store where the cards would be, were empty. so I asked an employee where they are and they said they don’t sell them anymore, is this a new thing? I even went to the gas station bc normally they sell them too but they also didn’t have them stocked
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone XR, iOS 17
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.
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.
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.
Montereycalifornia wrote:
I cannot find an Apple gift card anywhere. I have gone to all of the big stores that usually carry them. They tell me that no one has come to replenish the cards.
If you do not have an Apple Store or Authorized Apple dealer nearby, you can order them on apple.com. To Find locations, just choose "All Products" on this link to find Authorized Apple Sellers. They should have the Gift Cards along with the products. It will be much safer ordering the card directly on the Apple site as there are many Gift Card scams where they are made available on a rack where anyone can tamper with them.
At other locations, there are third party companies that stock all the Gift Cards at the stores in a large territory, it is not Apple that shows up to the stores to stock their own Gift Cards.
Evxiou wrote:
July 13 I went my local Walmart to buy a card but found out there is none. There was an apple gift card add for school graduations but no gift cards.
Walmart only sells them in their app and on their website for email delivery. The same is true for the Google Play Gift Cards. There had been a large number of complaints on this site about Gift Cards purchased at Walmart that were tampered with and the stores would not refund their money.
As far as I can tell there has been no discontinuance of physical gift cards by Apple. However, as pointed out already, it is up to a vendor if they wish to continue to carry them. I have seen a few vendors in my area stop carrying any brand of physical gift card at all.
Sam8000 wrote:
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.
Don't purchase from any location where the Gift Cards are displayed on a rack where they can be easily tampered with. That appears to be the case for the retail locations you have listed. Purchase them only where they are secured behind a counter. The retailers that care about their customers will either remove them or secure them. The one's that don't will have them on a rack, where the Gift Card will likely be redeemed before you even get a chance to get home.
KyleYaj wrote:
I went to multiple stores in my area and couldn’t find any Apple Gift cards. What’s happening Apple?
Apple isn’t here.
There are stacks of Apple gift cards in the local New England stores.
(This cropped picture is from a few weeks back, but the rack was still well stocked earlier today.)
You can order gift cards directly from Apple.
Which might be preferable to buying cards off an open rack, too.
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.
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 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.
eno_on_ma_I wrote:
Local Walmart, Walgreens and grocery stores are all out of them. What the actual heck is going on here?!
I suggest you read the posts here and also watch the video provided by Jeff Donald. It may have saved you the money that you were going to use to purchase the Gift Card.
Personally, in the Kansas City area the only place to find one is an Apple Store which there are three in the metro. You go in to “just buy a gift card” the sales pitches for everything else begins
I’m told by merchants it’s because of the scams I was just scammed out of $1500.00 and nothing can be done about it.
They’re readily available in my area of Florida. They can also be purchased online at Apple.com/store. You can have them delivered to your email for quick use. You can even send them as a gift.
LadyAntPearl wrote:
I went to buy an Apple Gift card the other day and no one has them in my area.
The store was actually doing you a favor. You may have not heard about people that camp out in these stores and tamper with the cards by scratching the codes and replacing them with new stickers that can be purchased from Amazon. This would leave you without a valid card and the stores do nothing to protect their customers with this happening right in their stores and will not refund your money. It is not Apple's responsibility monitor bad actors at these stores if the store refuses to secure the products they sell. Ironically you will see these stores lock up many products that they sell that thieves will steal, but could care less if they steal from YOU!
Why are the stores in my area not selling Apple Gift Cards anymore?
