The FinCEN threshold is $10000. The article mentioned buying enough Amazon gift cards to buy a stroller. The most expensive stroller I could find on Amazon in a minute was less than $600. So I don't think we can blame the government in this particular case. Probably just a lazy clerk who didn't feel like selling that many gift cards.
First, the $10,000 doesn't apply to "closed-loop" gift cards, like Visa or MasterCard gift cards, which is likely what the OP may have been looking to buy (although it's possible she was looking for Amazon gift cards). In the case of closed-loop cards, the limit is $2000 a day, not $10,000.
Second, that's a 10,000 limit per day, not per purchase.
Third, as someone else indicated, no clerk said anything to the OP. She just noticed the sign saying that large gift card purchases would be reported to the authorities, which would make me uneasy as well (how much is "large"? to what authorities?).
