For the past several years, American Express has run a promotion on Small Business Saturday, which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving in between the rampant “big-box” consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which I guess is rampant consumerism of a different style 😛
Amex Small Business Saturday 2015 is on Saturday November 28th, and many of us in the miles and points community have been looking forward to it
Why Amex Small Business Saturday was a big deal
In past years, American Express gives out statement credits on Amex Small Business Saturday if you shop at a participating small business with your American Express card. 3 years ago it was $25 per card, and then it was dropped to only $10. Last year the credit is $10, but you can earn it 3 times for each card that you have.
Cards of authorized users counted, as well as Bluebird, REDbird (The Target reloadable card) and Serve, so depending on how many cards you have, you could be looking at several hundreds of dollars.
My haul from Amex Small Business Saturday 2014
(SEE ALSO: Here’s my plan for Amex Small Business Saturday – what’s yours?)
(SEE ALSO: Small Business Saturday 2014 report – $180 in free gift cards)
Amex Small Business Saturday 2015: No statement credits
I learned from Frequent Miler this morning that Amex Small Business Saturday 2015 will not have any statement credits. From the official Amex Small Business Saturday 2015 FAQs,
As in years past, American Express will continue to drive awareness of Small Business Saturday and encourage consumers to shop small through local and national advertising.
This year we are not offering a statement credit offer for Card Members on Small Business Saturday, but are instead increasing the support and resources we provide to help small business owners market the day within their communities and truly make it their own. Learn about the materials we make available at ShopSmall.com/GetReady:
- Customizable marketing materials
- Free online ads
- Shop Small merchandise kits (while supplies last)
- Educational event guides
We are also significantly expanding our grassroots advocacy efforts, such as the Neighborhood Champion program, to facilitate more community events and activities to engage local communities to shop small on Small Business Saturday.
(emphasis mine)
Amex Small Business Saturday 2015: Find something else to do
One nice bonus for me is that I’ll get my Saturday back :-). Last year I spent quite a bit of time driving around to different qualifying small businesses buying gift cards, so for Amex Small Business Saturday 2015, maybe I’ll just sit back and watch some football 😀
I can understand why Amex chose to do this since it felt like there were many people (like me) who just bought gift cards in $10 denominations rather than really driving traffic / sales to the various Small businesses. It will be interesting to see the results of Amex Small Business Saturday 2015 and if that helps with American Express’s goals (which, of course, are different than your and my goals!)
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Here’s an idea: maybe you could still support your local business Ass Hole
LOL. Thanks for your comment 😀
why? so i can pay more for less? you’re making it personal when it’s just business. personally i’d rather save my hard earned money.
Guess what day it is Mike?
Get off your high-f*cking horse day.
I may have bought tons of gift cards in the past on SBS, but when I redeemed, I splurged so it probably had the effect they were looking for.
You should always support small businesses because when you do you’re helping communities and it makes a bigger impact on the economy. Large businesses aren’t going to share those extra Black Friday bucks with the employees, they’re going to pocket the money and fund lobbyists and/or fatten the CEO’s wallet. If you’re only looking to see what you can get for doing something good, that’s the same greed as a big business and why Amex dropped the program.
Hi Lisa – I am familiar with the rationale behind support small businesses. But the recent changes to Amex Small Business Saturday 2015 mean that it won’t be a big draw for me personally (just like Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren’t big draws for me)
Interesting point you raise about the gift card purchases. Hadn’t even thought to try that in years’ past. I actually used the benefit last year in 12 different local establishments, (with spouse), multiple purchases for real stuff or real food — places I likely never would have tried…. Yes, the promo drove traffic to those local businesses, and was great free publicity for them and for AMEX on both national and local TV….
Now, they’ve just thrown that all away… if the gc was part of the problem, or the issue of “split tender” hold-ups, then they could have easily added restrictions… but instead, they lop off the whole thing, then give us silly corporate PR about still supporting local business (while charging the higher fees to use AMEX, compared to via or m/c)
Now, I suspect we’ll see a return to small businesses making clear they don’t accept m/c….
AMEX might have calculated dumping sbs was “good business” for big corporate AMEX short-term bottom-line. (and the faux heads will be defending them all the way to be sure — yup, tis a “free country”…. and I too reserve the right to cancel my surplus AMEX cards…. 🙂 )
dang, soon as I posted it, saw a glaring typo…. sorry. In case it wasn’t obvious, AMEX is the cc service notorious (in small business circles) for charging higher fees (to the business) — and no doubt the small business saturday was a shrewd PR attempt to overcome those small business resentments… In any case, it’s now history.
Yeah – it remains to be seen what things Amex will be doing for SBS to “drive awareness” and whether those make any difference