It had been a while since I had bought VGCs from Safeway, but you used to be able to buy $3000 of VGC or MGC inclusive of fees without needing any kind of manager override. Then at the end of December, I tried to buy $2K plus fees so call it $2024 and at 3 different stores I went to, the register popped up asking for the manager override key card. At the first store this happened, the cashier who seemed pretty senior just removed 2 of the cards and it let her check out just fine. She then ran the other $1K in a 2nd transaction. At the next couple of stores I went to (I’m sort of familiar with the cashiers,) I asked the cashier as I’m handing them the gift cards, “Do you have the override card?” One of them said, “Yeah, the cashier next to me has it.” So I ran one transaction with $2K. At a different store, I broke it up into two transactions.
Eventually I spoke to one store manager about it, and he didn’t seem to know; he was guessing it was a holiday security thing. I don’t think that’s true since it’s still going on. It’s just a nuissance now going forward buying VGCs at Safeway. By the way, I’m not sure if the override is at $1500 or $2000; I just know $1K + fees is fine but $2K + fees needed override.
I mentioned this on Twitter and it doesn’t seem nationwide at all subsidiaries so YMMV. I want to guess this happened around the beginning of December.