Important point re: Christmas -- It's not just that gift cards make good gifts. Gift cards can also be used for one's own shopping. So if I know I'm going to be spending $250 at Toys R Us, then I can buy $250 of TRU scrip. Won't cost me an extra penny and my school will make money on the deal. Many groups can make 30% or 40% of their annual scrip earnings juts off of holiday shopping.
Just to answer your questions on Scrip, yes Walmart does participate and I think all you have to do is go to the front desk and ask about fundraising using the gift cards. Here in our area you are required to purchase a certain amount and they give you a free gift card to make up for the percentage.
We have been using Scrip for 4 years now and still don't have 100% participation. Most parents know it's available yet don't buy until Christmas time since these make great gifts.
I noticed most of you posting have a day when you accept orders and a day to fill and send them home. Here in our school we sell it everyday in the office and send home a order form in the newsletter so they know what we have. Also last year we did a monthly scrip award and all parents who purchased $100.00 or more in Scrip had their name go in a hat and if we pulled their name they got $25.00 in free scrip. We did have more families purchase after that.
You're right that in general, processing fees on credit cards make them less than ideal for the purpose of scrip.
However, there are places that offer reduced credit card processing fees to nonprofit organizations. I have also seen places that waive the fees completely.
I've never used any of them (New England Scrip is not non-profit so we don't qualify) but it might be worth looking into. It could be just the thing some people need to start buying scrip more often.
We probably purchase $2,000 per month in grocery scrip. That's our largest. We have local restaurants and also Lowes movie theater is very close and at $5 certificates everyone keeps them on hand for gifts, give to their kids, etc.
Does anyone know if Walmart participates in scrip on their own? I keep meaning to contact them and then it slips my mind. With the holidays approaching, I'll bet that'll be a good one.
We also buy Kohls and Macy's on our own. They give 10% but I think they're both a $1,000 min purchase to get the 10%. They're pretty good sellers for us also.
Grocery is by far our most ordered. This is followed closely by restuarants. At Christmas time we se a lot of other orders for toy and clothing stores. We offer a lot of merchants that are on Great Lakes list. We made Scrip mandatory (unless you wanted to buy out), so the parents got into a routine pretty quickly. We don't take credit cards. We don't even like cash (but of course we'll take it We like checks because it's traceable.
For us the grocery is the best one (since everyone needs food). The gas has not sold like I thought and fast food does well. We are coming into our 2nd full year of scrip and still only have about 15% of 450 students participate. GL advises it takes between 3-5 years to reach your potential goal. Whatever our percentage is I will still push the program as long has I continue to make a profit less my shipping fee of $11.00!! I quess I have seperation anxiety from my children and I look for any reason to be at their school!!!!!
We like checks because it's traceable. 
