Shopper Beware!

Not Just Circuit City!


All you jolly shoppers & friends out there, I wanted to give everyone a heads up that 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, but shouldn't there be?! It's masked by being
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
• Talbots20- closing down specialty stores
• J. Jill - closing all stores (owned by Talbot's)
• Pacific Sun Wear - (also owned by Talbot's)
• GAP - closing 85 stores
• Footlocker - closing 140 stores mo re 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 c lose 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

It makes me think, are they closing due to fear, the economy, performance, or long term planning? It's unfortunate that we're in the volatile, challenging, and economic hardships we are faced with currently, but does closing (like giving 700B to people who messed up/mis managed in the first place, in PRIVATE sectors such as Banks and Auto..., it's related in a way, and I wanted to vent, thank you, ha) solve the problem, or should they utilize the resources they have to react differently?