It has definitely become annoying! The workaround takes a lot of time but I finally got one 100% reliable. Normally, I cannot open the store or it gets spinning marigold of death.
This workaround works but it requires a 2nd dummy account that has cleared the practice level/intro with Dave.
1. Go back to select account screen
2. Temporarily pick the dummy (or 2nd) account
3. Open penny's pursuit. At this point you either 1) get no message screen or 2) get a "restore purchases" prompt. If "restore purchases" you are good to go, skip to step 5. If you get nothing, go to step 4.
4. Close out the game while still logged into 2nd account, and restart. Now go into penny's pursuit and you should get the "restore purchases" prompt.
5. Back up to the account screen and select main account, do NOT restart the game!
6. Open penny's pursuit on main account and make sure you get "restore purchases" again.
7. Now open the store! You only get ONE shot to open the store so do all your browsing and daily purchasing. If you try to open the store again you have to start the workaround all over.
Good luck I hope this works for others!
I do not have a workaround for the monthly new plant purchase yet. The past 3 months, google/EA has taken my money but no content arrives due to the spinning marigold and force closing. The only way is to go through EA customer support to get my seeds and verify with screenshots. You would think that fixing the bug would save on support requests so there may be more complexity involved on this bug and the whole purchasing infrastructure than we know.
