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How Was Your Small Business Saturday?
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This Small Business Saturday was my busiest yet. Every other one, I simply went to a single store and bought multiple gift cards. This time around, my wife and I planned a whole day around it. We went to 15+ stores with 10 cards and had a mini shopping spree. It was a great time!
Most of them didn’t know about Small Business Saturday, but surprisingly, every store we went to had no problem splitting payments and accepting Amex cards.
Here are a few highlights from our shopping spree…
Delicious Hibachi lunch
Our first stop was lunch, which we had at a Hibachi restaurant we both enjoy. Since we showed up at an odd time (1:30ish), the place was empty – I’m talking like 10 customers total, including us. That was good news, though, because the chef cooked enough food to serve a normal size table, which meant we received absurdly large portions. It was delicious.. and free. 🙂
After that we drove over to a strip mall we saw on Amex’s website and bought a few things including beef jerky, more gift cards, and some honey. The honey was supposed to be $8.00, but we asked the cashier to round-up to $10 so we could get the statement credit. He hadn’t heard of Small Business Saturday, but he had no problem doing that anyway.
I’m pretty sure we also stumbled on a bottle of pee at that strip mall. Why I took a picture and thought it necessary to mention, I don’t know.
Bottle of pee
From there, we went downtown to a few shops we’ve never been too, bought a few things, and went home. It was all around a super fun day.
Here are the spoils:
Small Business Saturday haul
Notes
- I received an email from Amex after every purchase, even the ones that processed the payment with Square. I have no idea how Amex tracked that.
- A few of the $10 credits have started trickling in, but I’m still waiting on about $250. Most of the purchases are still pending, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes 3-5 business days for the rest of the credits to post.
- The map on Amex’s SBS website kind of sucked. It was very annoying to navigate and certain stores would only show up under “Recommended”.
- Combining Small Business Saturday and gift card promotions (e.g buy $25 in GCs get $5 extra) was an awesome way to get the most out of your money.
- Having a game plan helps make SBS run very smoothly. That way you don’t have to double-check that a store or restaurant is considered a small business.
- Small Business Saturday really helps small businesses. I was shocked at how many people I saw using Amex cards while we were out. These people didn’t have multiple cards and they likely don’t read blogs like mine, but they were out taking advantage of SBS all the same. Also, my wife and I went to stores we’ve never been to before and Amex is the one who gave us the opportunity too.
How was your Small Business Saturday? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments!
