I don’t participate in every points and miles opportunity, but Small Business Saturday isn’t complicated and you don’t have to jump through many hoops. I think of it as a member recognition day of sorts. Thank you Amex!
One day last week I pulled out my eligible American Express branded cards. There were seven. I registered them all online, which was very easy. I spent some time trying to figure out the “map” in order to find participating merchants. This feature needs improvement. It’s very wonky. I finally looked only to my own zip code, and ended up inputting the names of some merchants on my own to see if they were registered. I double checked the restaurants against those which get extra miles from airline dining programs but none matched. I made a quick list on a post-it of establishments in walking distance and set out early Saturday afternoon.
In nearly every case, no one had heard of SBS. I had to guide them through the process, explaining that I needed separate $10 transactions. I received automatic email confirmations from Amex.
First: ALCOHOL! Yorkshire Liquor, right on my street is on the list, so why not? One bottle Fireball and a mega bottle Sake. $42. (3 x $10 on one card, and 1 X $10 on another card).
Second: MexiBBQ! A local favorite, with a great Monday night $9.99 burger and beer special and a Tuesday night $19.99 all you can eat ribs special. $50 Gift Card (2X $10 one card, and 3 x $10 second card). (note: nobody knew what to do nor heard of SBS, but manager sold card).
Third: Luke’s Lobster. Gotta have a lobster roll! Luke’s is one of the few places that understood SBS, or so I thought. When I checked my credit card online, I found that I had been charged $12 three times…. I won’t complain as long as the gift card they issued is also for $36.
UPDATE: the Luke’s charges were on BLUEBIRD Amex Card. Luke’s only charged $10 per transaction, but Bluebird lists it as a hold for an additional 20%, or $12 per transaction. Bluebird informed me that the extra $2 per transaction will “fall off” once the bill is paid.
Fourth: MeiJin Ramen! A new ramen place that I’ve been wanting to try. The restaurant is so pretty and the food smelled so good, I didn’t want to leave. $30 Gift Certificate (3 x $10). (note: no one knew what to do nor heard of SBS)
Fifth: Vietnaam. A local Vietnamese restaurant that I like a lot. Again, they had no idea they were participating, but filled out a gift certificate. $30 (3 x $10).
The sixth and final stop was the most difficult. First, I went to a new Mexican restaurant, Rosa something. They said they did not have any gift cards or certificates. Then I decided to back track to first avenue to Pio Pio, a favorite Peruvian Chicken restaurant. When I got there, I saw they had some nasty health code violations and walked on. There’s an upscale Mexican restaurant on 86th Street, Maz Mezcal, which was participating, but to my surprise, they also had serious health code violations.
Sixth: The sixth and final merchant was Sotto Cinque. A local Italian restaurant. Again, they hadn’t heard of SBS, but were happy to issue a gift certificate. $30 (3 x $10)
As for Won’t Run:
After weeks of reminding him to enroll his cards, he finally did so on Friday. We went to dinner with his daughter at a favorite all you can eat sushi restaurant last night. He remembered to bring only 2 of the cards. So, $60 of the $90 meal was charged at 6 x $10 on his 2 cards. Too bad he didn’t bring the third card, but, as they say, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
HOW DID YOU DO?
A New York frequent flyer who elegantly combines her passions for worldwide travel, running a gazillion marathons all over the globe and staying fit ... without sacrificing her fancy for good wine and food.
I also stayed very local to do my SBS shopping, keying in my zip and looking for establishments I knew and love. And I scored at:
1) My fav local restaurant where if you bought 3 GCs you got a 4th for free. So I bought 12 $10 GCs and came home with 16!
2) DH’s fav healthy fast food, where we bought $150 in $10 GCs. There, for every $25 you spent on GCs you got a great 100% cotton t-shirt. One says: “Dinosaurs are vegetarians too!” We came home with 6 adorable shirts we’ll use for gifts.
3) My hair salon, where there were no extra giveaways but I now have 18 $10 GCs which I will use through the year.
On top of this, our little neighborhood is running a “Golden Ticket” promo where if you spend a set amount at a participating store, you get a coupon worth a discount in another participating store. All my purchases qualified and some qualified for multiple coupons. I now have a handful to use on purchases I’ll make between now and 12/31.
I decided to tip the folks who did all the swiping. I am not usually a huge tipper, esp. when it is expected for something that involves very little work on the part of the recipient and it is his or her job to do it. But today I was happy to share the wealth and it just added to the fun when the people doing all the swiping found themselves tipped for ringing up the sales.
DH participated only because I set it all up using Tweetdeck. He was clueless but dutifully came along to sign his name. And I brought along my son’s Amex cards and we were able to use his along with ours. Amazing how few cashiers ask for ID or to see the card!
All in all, a good day. Balanced it by make a Kiva loan to share the wealth even more.
Cheers!