American Express has an annual tradition called Small Business Saturday which is taking place Saturday November 29th and they have upped their game big time this year. Amex has partnered with small businesses to create “Shop Small”. The idea is to promote and encourage small business shopping and it seems to have worked very well. It has worked so well that American Express has upped their game and is giving card members $30 towards purchases made in any small business On November 29th.
What is considered “Shop Small”? Probably almost everything around you unless you live in Kansas or something! All of my favorite bars, restaurants, coffee shops, small clothing stores and merchants seem to be participating. There’s even a map you can check which will load recommendations based on your past purchases! Nice! I think from what I can see virtually everything except Target, Starbucks and Walmart seem to be included.
The way it works is that starting November 16th (today) you can register online while logged into your account by selecting “My Offers” or on ShopSmall.com. Once registered, per American Express card you carry, you get (3) ten dollar credits. So if you go into merchant A and buy 2 coffee’s totalling $10 that purchase will be free and credited to you via amex. Next you go into merchant B and have a $40 lunch, you will receive $10 off your purchase via amex. Merchant C you go and buy a $15 necklace and as you may have guessed it ends up only being $5 through an amex credit. The offer is $30 per card so if you happen to have multiple American Express cards you could really benefit!
I will definitely use this to “buy a friend a drink” because I won’t have to pay for it! I think this is a really great win win promotion and I am almost thankful to American Express for taking my money when they do things like this. Nevermind, I am never thankful when someone takes my money. Nice that they are at least giving some of it back and promoting small businesses in the meantime!
Are you going to Shop Small? What is your favorite small merchant that takes American Express?
Great find–looking forward to taking advantage of this great deal on the 29th! Never would have known about it were it not for God Save the Points!