Many people see the retail industry slumping this year because of the continuing credit crisis, meaning Americans can’t borrow as much to continue our spendy ways, and increased prices across the board, meaning Americans can’t buy as much with the money they still have. Either way, there are only a few ways that a retailer bankruptcy actually affects you. First, let’s take a look at what actually happens when a retailer goes bankrupt. Then, we’ll talk about how this affects you.

Retailers Going Bankrupt

When a retailer goes bankrupt, it’s almost irrelevant to the consumer what type of bankruptcy protection they file for because the effects are the same. Chapter 11 means they want to soldier on, restructure their debts, and try to get back on its feet. Chapter 7 means the business is kaput, everything is going to be liquidated, and there’s no hope for the company.

How This Affects You

Gift Cards: Either way, a retailer in bankruptcy protection will see all of its gift cards frozen and made worthless. This is the greatest impact on the consumer and one reason why I argue that you shouldn’t hold onto gift cards. When Linens ‘n Things and Sharper Image filed bankruptcy earlier this year, both froze gift cards. There are exceptions and those often occur in the case of Chapter 11 bankruptcies, where the retailer will still honor gift cards, because they want to keep good will. If they freeze gift cards but still keep stores open, it’s less likely that consumers will shop there after they’ve been “screwed.”

Another scenario is when those gift cards are made worthless by the bankrupt retailer, other retailers may swoop in and offer discounts to those holding the worthless gift cards. It’s akin to airlines offering fare discounts to those holding bankrupt airline tickets.

Liquidation Sales: Just because the retailer is going under doesn’t mean you’ll find any good deals. CompUSA’s liquidation sales were awful, Shaper Image liquidation sales were awful, and Bombay liquidation sales were awful. When the items were overpriced in the first place, it’s hard to justify paying “normal” price for something you can never return. However, there are always deals to be found if you’re diligent but don’t expect a fire sale just because the retailer is bankrupt.

Returns: You’re probably out of luck on returns with a bankrupt retailer. Any purchases you make after they’ve declared are definitely not returnable, in fact they will probably put up huge signs in the store indicating “all sales are final” and “no returns.” As for purchases before they went bankrupt, you might be able to return it but I doubt it. If the retailer is really going away, there’s no reason to accept the return. If the retailer is restructuring, you might be able to return it but I wouldn’t bet on it.

A retailer going bankrupt is never a good thing, even if you’re a bargain-hunter swooping in, because a lot of people will have lost gift card value (in the case of Linens ‘n Things, ~400,000 lost around $42M in gift card value!), the sales will probably suck, and you lose another sales-tax, income-tax paying shop in your neighborhood.

(Photo by paul keleher)

You can delay the reaper but you can rarely totally avoid him and this past week Linens ‘n Things filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a few weeks after they were originally predicted to have succumbed. If you read my post about how they were going under and how you shouldn’t hold onto gift cards, then you wouldn’t be one of the 400,000 customers stuck with $42M in worthless gift cards.

Mrs Micah talked a little about contributing to presidential campaigns and how the contributions amount to very speculative investing. It’s an interesting thought, especially after noting people contributing to “lost cause” campaigns like Huckabee’s, that definitely gets you thinking. I was never one for political campaign contributions, I think my money is better served going towards health/medical related charitable causes.

Lastly, JD has a fine post on high-yield savings accounts that lists rates and features of each bank. I’m quite partial to my own list of best online savings accounts but I’m a little biased.

Linen ‘n Things has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, freezing $42M in gift cards.

We received many gift cards as wedding gifts (thanks!) and fortunately none of them were Linens ‘n Things cards because they’ll be filing for bankruptcy tomorrow ($15 million quarterly payment is due!). What does this mean for gift card holders? There is a possibility that Linens, as Sharper Image did, will suspend the acceptance of gift cards and anyone holding one will be left with nothing. Gift card holders are considered unsecured creditors during bankruptcy, which puts them after secured creditors and thus less likely to receive anything. You didn’t think you were lending a company money when you bought it, huh?

America has spent the last twenty five years in a state of heightened consumerism, with relatively few retailer busts. The probability that you could have a gift card from a publicly traded company go worthless was pretty slim. Suddenly, you have Bombay bust last year, followed by Sharper Image, and you start seeing that the little spending train we’ve been riding is starting to slow down and the risk of a gift card becoming worthless plastic go up. To be honest, I had no idea Sharper Image went under (though I never understood how they kept afloat, those gadgets were cool but expensive and hardly ever “necessary”) until long after they were liquidating. (anyone else with me?) Who has time to keep track of that? I don’t, I’d guess you don’t either.

So, the lesson of the day is to spend down those gift cards as soon as possible. We have gift cards from places like Macy’s and Bed Bath & Beyond (which is a store just like Linens ‘n Things), and while the future looks good for them (honestly, we have no idea how the future looks for them, it’s not like Linens ‘n Things was visibly struggling) you never know what can happen.

Need another reason to not like gift cards? This seems like a pretty strong one. Cash doesn’t expire and if the US Government ever declares bankruptcy, the least of your worries will be what Federal Reserve Note gets you in bankruptcy proceedings.

If anyone is currently working at LNT and would like to write about their experience, please contact me, thanks!

###

Also, the 148th Carnival of Personal Finance is up at Gather Little by Little, my post on Curb Spending By Writing Goals on Credit Cards was a top pick this week!