Small Business Saturday, now in its 5th year, is an awesome promotion by American Express promoting consumer spending at American small businesses on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, this year falling out on November 29th.
This year’s promotion allows each registered American Express card to spend $10 3 times (minimum of $10 per swipe) at any small business for 3 $10 credits. Eligible cards include all American Express personal, small business, Bluebird, and Serve cards, including secondary cards as authorized users. Corporate cards and REDCard are not eligible to participate in this promotion. Register all the cards in your household, not just the main account holder’s card. You can probably still request additional cards for other members of your family and register them before SBS should the promotion still be available. SBS registration is limited to a certain amount of Amex cards, although that limit could be reached at any given time.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER YOUR AMEX CARDS
This is a great opportunity to go out after Shabbat and use your Amex cards at kosher restaurants, your local kosher supermarket, liquor store, Judaica store, etc. While Amex has specific listings of participating businesses and rules referring to which types of businesses can participate, my past experience has shown that any small business (listed or not on their website) will count so long as it is not a large chain. (For example, even kosher restaurants with multiple locations like Carlos & Gabby’s are considered a small business under this promotion, whereas your CVS Pharmacy is not).
Additionally, past SBS promotions have allowed donations to non-profits (like your local shul) to pass through as small businesses. So yes, you could make donations to your shul, but that’s not the purpose of this promotion.
Technically, you are able to use a card 3 times in the same location if you ask the business to split your $30+ purchase into 3 $10+ swipes, you should receive 3 $10 credits.
Click here to read the full terms & conditions for the Small Business Saturday promotion.
