BAD NEWS ... they’ve gone back to stocking Fastcard GC’s behind the register. At 1 store, neither the shelf tag nor the GC had Fastcard’s brand (just obvious white space in the corners), but neither XBL nor PSN cards allowed the coupon.
At the 2nd store I went to (in a flurry of sad emotion), they’d just remodeled & don’t stick GC’s behind the register anymore. Instead the employee pointed to Fred Meyer’s own gift card rolling 3-sided display with a “get 2x has rewards” sign on top. And I already knew I was in trouble because the “display only” shelf tags (at the 2nd store) had Fastcard’s brand on the back where the 1st store’s had blank white space ... but the shelf tags were otherwise identical in instructions, fonts, UPC code, etc.
If I had to guess, I think Kroger has negotiated a deal with Fastcard for all their GC’s, but some stores still have unbranded cards from when Kroger was activating some GC’s themselves.
Crap.
Thanks for doing the homework.
Sucks that we're back in this predicament again. ...I'll check my local branch next time I see a %-Off coupon to see if I'm impacted, as well. (I'm sure I am.) Sounds like the end of an era. Again.