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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

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

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:

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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