Retail is a cut-throat world but, increasingly, the customer is among those feeling the pain when things go wrong.
The demise of the Harvey Nichols Irish store in Dundrum Town Centre is just the latest example. Following the sale of its UK parent to Mike Ashley’s Frasers group through what is known as a prepack administration process in the UK, liquidators from Grant Thornton were appointed to the Irish business.
And among their first actions was to post a notice on the store’s website to say that any “orders placed and gift cards purchased before August 13th, 2026, fall under the ownership structure preceding this transition”.
In other words, they are not being honoured.
This is even though the store has reopened – for now – with support from Frasers while the liquidators seek to sell the business.
Customers have been advised to retain any gift cards pending an ongoing review, but they would be well advised not to get their hopes up.
We’ve been here before, as far back as HMV’s collapse in 2013 (before the brand’s reappearance in Dublin several years later). House of Fraser had an almost identical scenario when its Irish business fell in 2018.
And even under new, tougher legislation putting in stronger consumer rights on gift cards and vouchers in 2019, gift card holders have been left out of pocket in the collapse of New Look boutique and Rathwood Garden Centre last year, and now this.
Put simply, when a business collapses, holders of gift cards and vouchers are ranked among unsecured creditors towards the back of the queue seeking payments. And by the time the secured creditors – the Revenue Commissioners and banks – get at least some of their debt repaid, there is rarely anything left for those unsecured creditors.
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Vouchers are a popular gift – with a consumer watchdog survey showing that two-thirds of people received at least one the previous Christmas – but one in five people had not spent them within a year, an amount previously reported to be in the region of €70 million.
In the current difficult retail environment where stores are coming and going all the time, gift cards are a high-risk option. National book tokens that can be used in any store are certainly a better option.
If you did get a gift card recently, the best advice is to get out there and use it now while the value of that gift can still be enjoyed.
