Connecticut’s attorney general filed a motion urging the bankruptcy court to require Ski Market to honor gift cards despite its recent Chapter 11 filing. Ski Market has indicated that bankruptcy proceedings will not allow it to it honor the approximately $200,000 in outstanding gift cards.

"Ski Market is in freefall – down a very steep slope – in betraying consumer trust," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Thursday in a news release. "This refusal to honor gift cards and deposits is particularly unconscionable because the company sold gift cards as recently as two weeks before it filed for bankruptcy."

Ski Market, which currently operates five stores in Massachusetts and one each in Connecticut and Rhode Island, filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 29, with the goal of selling or liquidating its business within one month. Until then, the company said in a message posted on its Web site, "the bankruptcy process does not allow for Ski Market to return any deposits made for leased equipment, accept merchandise returns or exchanges, issue or redeem any Ski Market Rewards certificates, or redeem Ski Market gift cards."