Thursday, December 4, 2008

Gift Cards: Careful

By now, I would bet most of you have received these emails about being Careful this Holiday Season with Gift Cards from certain stores as they may be closing at the beginning of the upcoming year. That is very sad. I thought I would share that email here (just in case there is any validity to it) so you will also see the stores that it is a possibility to buy gift cards and then all the sudden may no longer be honored.

I know all about "all the sudden" surprises as my husband was just laid off on Monday (he worked for Ford for 7 years). My mom is going to be laid off this Friday (update: she actually ended up being laid off that Tuesday a few days earlier than originally told)(she worked in Furniture for 37 years). So, from personal experience...I believe this email has some truths to it and I will also add links to snopes.com with their spin on these emails. Without further adieu: here is the email:

Stores that will be closing after Christmas
and are still selling Gift Cards that will not
be good on January 1, 2009.
There is no Law preventing them from
selling these cards, so please beware.

Circuit City (Filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- (117 Stores Nationwide Closing)
Lane Bryant,
Fashion Bug and Catherine's (to Close 150 Stores)
Eddie Bauer (to close 27 stores and more after January)
Cache (Closing all stores)
Talbots ( closing down specialty Stores)
J.Jill (Closing all Stores)
Pacific Sunwear (Owned by Talbots)
GAP-(Closing 85 Stores)
Footlocker (closing 140 stores)
Wickes Furniture (Closing all Stores)
Levitz (All Stores)
Bombay (closing all Stores)
Zales (closing 82 stores & 105 after January)
Whitehall (closing all Stores)
Piercing Pagoda (closing all stores)
Disney (closing 98 stores)
Home Depot (Closing 15 stores in NJ)
Macy's (closing 9 stores after January)
Linens & Things (closing all stores)
Movie Galley (closing all stores)
Pep Boys (closing 33 stores)
Sprint/Nextel (closing 133 stores)
JC Penny (closing a number of stores after January)
Ethan Allen (closing down 12 stores)
Wilson Leather ( Closing all stores)
Sharper Image (closing all stores)
KB Toys (closing 356 Stores)
Dillard's (closing some stores)

Now, if you intended to get a gift card for someone from one of these stores, I would recommend you do some of your own research before you say oh, no...I'm not getting one now. Seriously...you could contact stores and such to be sure of which stores are closing and that sort of thing. It is worth at least looking into it.

Here are the Snopes.com links to these emails and their research about them (all worth looking into...they are not totally false as stated on snopes.com):
This link says the email is a "mix" of truths:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/storeclosings.asp
This link says the email is "Partly true":
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/bankruptcies.asp
Both of the snopes emails are very similar to the one above...so it does make you scratch your head and be more alert when purchasing a gift card for a loved one.

Have a good Thursday!

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