bob hansen looks at what you can do. >> it's not easy being a traditional brick and mortar store these days. stores like authority, pacsun, and aeropostale, have all filed for chapter 11, while sports chalet announced they're closing down all their locations. what does that mean for people with gift cards to those stores? >> they might restructure and come out of that, and that's great, but they might be sold, they might be sold in parts. they might be sold entirely or they might have to close the store. when that happens, the gift card becomes in jeopardy. >> shelly hunter follows gift card trends. today, the trend is use it or lose it. >> if you have a gift card to a store in any kind of financial problems, especially chapter 11, you need to use the gift card as soon as you possibly can. >> but what happens if you find a gift card after the store has gone under? is there any hope to get money back? >> well, you might get your money back for the gift card. you're also going to be standing in line behind all the other businesses that are owed money by the store. >> in the case of aerop