If you plan to give gift cards this year--beware of bankruptcy law

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whatevergirl

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One of my sister inlaws sent me this today…thought I’d pass it along.

Here’s a heads up if you tend to give
gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards
will or may not be honored after the holidays.

Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still
selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards may well be
worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On
the contrary, it is referred to as ‘Bankruptcy Planning’.

Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious
about. Check with the respective stores when you purchase the gift cards.

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant
Fashion Bug
Catherine’s to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down specialty stores
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down
Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January
Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stores
K B Toys closing 356 stores
Loews to close down some stores
Dillard’s to close some stores
 
I’ve been seeing this email everywhere so I thought I’d look it up on Snopes. I’d highly recommend reading their take on it:)

Snopes
 
I just posted what my SIL sent me. I think it’s anyone’s guess where our economy is heading, but I definitely wouldn’t purchase anything from a store that might not be open in Jan of 09–Like Linens and Things, etc. The rest, I guess it’s a guessing game. I like Snopes–but they don’t seem to be giving any info I hadn’t already known about bankruptcy laws.

I was sad to hear that Linens & Things was going out of business, though. 😦
 
I guess I was thinking more along the lines of GAP and some of the other ones who are only closing some of their stores. Most of them will have online stores which one could use a gift card for. I only buy the Visa gc now if I’m going to buy one so that someone can get what they want from anywhere.

Linens and Things had a huge sale though on Black Friday. It was 75% off everything…
 
maria29 said:
I guess I was thinking more along the lines of GAP and some of the other ones who are only closing some of their stores. Most of them will have online stores which one could use a gift card for. I only buy the Visa gc now if I’m going to buy one so that someone can get what they want from anywhere.

**Linens and Things had a huge sale though on Black Friday. It was 75% off everything…/**QUOTE]

:eek:
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Here’s some advice for some of these retailers…why don’t they drop their prices? I mean, some of the prices in the GAP are crazy…my kids like Hollister, etc…but the trendy stores will eventually be in the same boat. No one needs to be paying $40 for a simple tee shirt…and yet these stores still have these pricetages…Not that it could help now in the state things are in…but I think that some of these stores could have saved some of the their locations, if they just started selling more reasonably priced clothing. 🤷 Mayors is having a sale on Rolex…like 20% off. I mean, maybe that is what it should be to begin with. I like high end stores, but I’m not shopping there anymore…I don’t understand why these stores are not permanently dropping their prices…to help out the economy. Nope, we’ll just close a bazillion shops and lay people off left and right…:rolleyes: Again, I know, too little too late NOW, but greed really has been at play in so many industries, it seems. I’m tired of things costing more than they should.
 
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!:sad_bye:

Just kidding, I neither have, nor want, any piercings 😛
 
Genesis315 said:
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!:sad_bye:

Just kidding, I neither have, nor want, any piercings 😛
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LOL–That’s funny.

I feel for all these employees of these places…I mean, where are all these workers going to end up if every major retailer is closing several locations nationwide???:confused: 😦
 
I have it on good authority that Dillard’s will still have some stores open, and will still have an online store- which takes gift cards.

The Linens and Things near us has always been staffed by rude people, and has higher prices than most other stores. So, I’m not so sad to see them close. I went in the other day to see if they really meant markdown. What they meant was they’d marked up, then marked down. But the people were still rude.😦
 
One thing I’ve become aware of with gift cards is when you receive them, use them promptly. A lot of the companies have gone to some kind of monthly fee being assessed. If you wait too long to use the card, they could be worthless – or greatly diminished in value.
 
I heard that too Nanny…

I typically only give gift cards to movies, or restaurants…ones I know are doing well. I think I gave one of my nephews a Target gift card last year.

burbs–is Dilliards on the list, too? I didn’t notice. Wow, what’s happening to the retailers in America?😦 For those of you who know Ohio/Pittsburgh retailers…the equivalent of say a Dilliards was Kauffmans…and that went completely out of business a few years before I left. Then, they replaced that with Boscov’s which I thought was a very cool store…sort of like a step down from Macy’s…and THAT TOO went out of biz. I was like…what is going on here? Macy’s seems to be recession proof, so that’s good. Well, not completely recession proof, but they seem to have lasting power throughout the years.

I’m just so dazed and saddened by all these store closings. 😦
 
Dillard’s was on the list I received (another good reason to read snopes). I called Dillard’s, the n went to snopes, then went to WSJ. Ifound out that, while they are closing maybe 16 stores, they still have online and the other stores. I need online Dillard’s. I love their clothes for girls, so modest, most of them, and so feminine! Our sister high shcool carried Dillard’s gift cards, so I get a little rebate from the scrip. But I am not driving all the way to Texas just to go to Dillard’s.
 
I can tell you for sure that Circuit City did file bankruptcy…my ds left there a few months ago when they didn’t give him the promotion they promised when he was hired because they were preparing for bankruptcy.

Thankfully ds got a dream job and a super dream parttime job…
 
Remember that a chain of stores may stay open during Chapter 11 bankruptcy and later return to normal operations. (I can’t count how many airlines have done this.) I have no idea what “bankruptcy planning” the chain letter refers to (if the stores were going into Chapter 7, there would be nothing to plan for anyway.) I would expect that chains going into Chapter 11 will continue to accept gift cards to save their reputation.

For example, there is a list of 155 Circuit Stores that are closing, but there have been no announcements that the others will close or that gift cards will stop being accepted.

That being said, I stopped going to Circuit City some time ago due to the horrid customer service that I received. When I was buying an air conditioner there last summer, the stereo systems were all turned to full volume and playing defining music. I saw a couple leaving the store and they told the doorman that they were leaving because the music was too loud. He loudly laughed at them and did nothing to correct the situation.

Needless to say, this Circuit City location is on the store closings list…
BlestOne said:
I can tell you for sure that Circuit City did file bankruptcy…my ds left there a few months ago when they didn’t give him the promotion they promised when he was hired because they were preparing for bankruptcy.

Thankfully ds got a dream job and a super dream parttime job…
Click to expand...
 
Oh, are all the Circuit City stores closing? Like are they going completely out of business? I thought they were filing Chapter 11, and restructuring?
 
whatevergirl said:
One of my sister inlaws sent me this today…thought I’d pass it along.

Here’s a heads up if you tend to give
gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards
will or may not be honored after the holidays.

Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still
selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards may well be
worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On
the contrary, it is referred to as ‘Bankruptcy Planning’.
Click to expand...
Once the store files bankruptcy you may be unable to use the gift cards. Gift Cards are considered unsecured debt which will place you in line behind all secured creditors. It makes great sense for the store to sell them as they are generating cash flow for unsecured debt obligations which they may decide to not honor thus being “free” money for them.
 
I think it is not a good idea to give gift cards as gifts. If you’re going to give gift cards, just give cash instead.

Gift cards are nothing but interest free loans to big corporations.
 
Well look, if one of y’all give me a gift card to store outta business I’m gonna be ticked. :mad:
 
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