Thread: Don't Buy Gift Cards for Christmas !‏

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Here is a heads up, if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will 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 will 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:


Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 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

You are right. I have a gift card that still has some money left on it for a local restaurant that went belly up. When in your life have you ever seen so many recognizable names closing stores or closing altogether?

We just pulled up the stock values on two companies that we are involved with at work. One had stock that was $ 36 a share at one time, and it is now a dollar something a share, and the other one was about $ 23 and it is about $ 2 a share. We haven't hit bottom yet, there is more to come.


Don

My son got a Circuit city gift car for his birthday 6 weeks ago. We went there 2 weeks ago and they would not accept it at the store. They said it could be used on thier website. Of coarse shipping would probably be as much as the card is worth. I told him to just chalk it up as one of lifes learning experiences that not everything is perfect.

Thanks for posting these, very useful information. I had no idea about the others closing so many stores.

Originally Posted by mooneye777

My son got a Circuit city gift car for his birthday 6 weeks ago. We went there 2 weeks ago and they would not accept it at the store. They said it could be used on thier website. Of coarse shipping would probably be as much as the card is worth. I told him to just chalk it up as one of lifes learning experiences that not everything is perfect.

Thanks for posting these, very useful information. I had no idea about the others closing so many stores.

circuit city has the site to store thing like walmart.. so you can have it shipped to your local store free.. and I think it's tax free too.. I did it with walmart.com on a mp3 player and I'd have to look at my bill but I don't remember paying sales tax, and I know I did not pay anything at the store.

It's just the beginning too!