Sometimes bigmango, the credit card company cannot recover the money from the store. If a company's gone bankrupt, they stand about as much chance of recovery as a member of the public.
Our daughter had studio photographs of our grandaughter taken at a branch of Olan Mills on 13th December. The company went into liquidation the following day.
Fortunately, the �300 odd bill was paid by credit card and if the photos (including a large framed one) don't appear by the second week of January, the credit card company have agreed to refund the money paid.
Fortunately, the photos were taken on a digital camera and we were given a CD of them them before leaving the studio, so we could have them printed off elsewhere.
To my mind, it goes to prove that it's well worth paying by credit card in circumstances like this - the Olan Mills website states that people who paid cash have effectively lost their money and photos.