I wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to buy or give gift cards
around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards may not be
honored after the holidays.

Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling these
cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless on January
1 or later. Currently, there is no law preventing them from selling the gift cards. The practice is commonly referred to as 'Bankruptcy Planning'.

Below is a partial list of stores that may not honor gift cards after Jan 1st. Things can change, so please verify this with any of these vendors prior to purchasing

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 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 closi ng 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

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

Regards,

Gerard Ladalardo, CMPS
www.caloanpros.com