As we posted here this morning, today was the big Small Business Saturday shopping extravaganza. Here’s how it went down for us!
Mrs. Weekly Flyer and I made a date of it this afternoon, having grandma over to watch the little ones so that we could really focus on the “job” at hand. We had a great time and scored some awesome stuff and a lot of American Express credits. If you didn’t get in on the fun this year, be sure to stack yourself up with American Express cards next year so that you can participate!
Breakdown of cards was: 8 qualifying cards between the 2 of us x 3 credits each card = 24 credits or $240 in credits!
Our strategy was to stick as close to $10-$12 per transaction as possible to maximize on value.
Small Business Saturday Success
- 4 small gifts for holiday giving (2 candles and 2 ceramic bowls)
- 6 small bottles of liquor – some for ourselves and some to bring to holiday gatherings
- 2 six-packs of beer
- 3 bottles of wine
- pack of firewood – Ace Hardware
- large pack of batteries – Ace Hardware
- grill brush  – Ace Hardware
- 2 bags of lawn fertilizer – Ace Hardware
- 2 lunches
- 2 orders of dinner to go
When we got home, we already had our emails confirming our credits!
Bottom Line
This was seriously so much fun and what a great benefit from being an American Express card holder! We scored $240 in credits today for great things that we can use and gift for the holidays! Honestly, I can’t wait to do it again next year!
How did you make out today? What was the best thing that you scored with your statement credits today? Post a comment with your best purchases!
About The Weekly Flyer
The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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I’ve spent 9 times and received 6 email confirmations. Now not sure if I should respond on the ones that weren’t confirmed of if they will eventually go through. 2 of them were at the same store that confirmed the purchase on another card.
I have not received any confirmations on 5 cards. Fingers crossed that all is well just slow.
15 cards X $30!!!!
I did 18 transactions today and have received 9 email confirmations. The 9 that are missing are three each from each of two Bluebirds and my Fidelity Investment Rewards card. I am wondering if the delays have to do with those being non-standard AMEX cards. I received confirmations immediately from my Hilton HHonors AMEX and even from a Citi Dividend co-branded AMEX.
Anyone seeing similar delays with Bluebird or Fidelity AMEX?
I got 36 email confirmations for mine and my wife’s 12 Amex cards ( including 4 serve cards, 1 fidelity card, and 1 Macy’s ). First I used 24 swipes for 2 $120 local grocery gift card purchase. After the customer service cashier got really irritated. I decided to use the rest of 12 swipes for separate purchase from three different counter. All 36 purchase are on the same local grocery store and I got 36 confirmation emails within 10 minutes after each swipe.
Delay of about 1 hour on bluebird. Got all emails except one plus one extra email for a total of 4 on one card but I only spent 3 times. Not sure what’s up.
I have two Amex cards; I spent “small” four times today, and got three email notifications. I think one business might be considered not “local” for me, but I”m going to call Amex and get clarification on that.
Got all 72 confirmations within minutes of the transactions. A lot of shopping done. 🙂
Woohoo! $330 in credits across 11 cards (both primary and authorized cards). Weirdly, I had 4x emails for a few of my cards and 5x for one card. Not sure why. In one case, I am 100% sure I only swiped and signed 3x. I got some books and puzzles at a local bookstore, some hair products at my salon, some wine at the wine shoppe, and the very nice CSR at my music store kindly split payment for 5 separate swipes between 2 cards.
Was looking at every email account but the one that is registered. I got all my messages.
One of my favorite restaurants in San Diego (who was on the map) said they would not accept AE today unless the total was over $100. I said ok, how bout 10 x $10 gift card transactions. The owner said no, too many transacation fees, only one $100 transaction! He said he’d be happy to do Visa and Mastercard gift cards though broken down. I said sorry it’s AE small business day, not Visa small business day. Sometimes small business owners aren’t too business savvy. I had $540 (18 cards) of business revenue that could have all been his. Instead he got $0 for being mad at AE. Other businesses (restaurants mainly) got the $540 in purchases from me and my wife.
I was thinking about what I just wrote and wondered, can a business really make any money on an AE $10 transaction? After the high AE fees, would there be any room for profit?
If I was a business, maybe I wouldn’t promote Small Biz SA if I suspected folks would only do $10 transactions. A couple liquor stores I went to also said no AE txns unless $25 or over. I can see profit maybe at $25 and up but at $10? maybe not.
I got $60 dollars in free groceries from local store 🙂 love self checkout lol!
Your small business grocery store has self checkout?!? Mine has expired food, melted cheese, and defrosted/refrozen vegetables!
I got all the confirmation emails from the transactions but when I used DIFFERENT cards at the SAME merchant I only got the $10 credit on my statement once. Anyone else have the same experience?
Yes, Cogswell I have the same thing. 4 cards, got all 12 email confirmations but so far only 1 $10 credit. I used all 4 cards at the same merchant for $11 transactions. 12 transactions in total.
I got all credits (including Bluebird) except for one transaction, plus nothing yet from Fidelity AmEx.
I used 10 cards (x3) for restaurant gift cards around town. Even though two of the restaurants posted a transaction date of 11/30 (the day AFTER Small Biz Saturday), I still received a credit (but later than the others). @Jennifer – The Fidelity AmEx, however, did not give a credit for the 11/30 posting. I called and explained about Small Biz Saturday (the card is operated by Fidelity Services and not AmEx) and they gave me a $20 credit to make up for the missing two credits from AmEx. This is now my favorite “shopping” day of the year! Thanks, AmEx!!!