Originally Posted by travelling companion

Your point is well taken I will admit that Shipt does in fact deliver thing that are not traditionally groceries in some markets but I think in focusing on the one example I gave, you lost my broader point. The real issue is not Shipt specifically but the way in which American Express decides who is or who isn't classified as a U.S. Supermarket or U.S. Restaurant. First, who owns a business is completely irrelevant for what they sell. Amazon owns Whole Foods but it is still considered a U.S. Supermarket. Shipt is not just a delivery service for some Target products but also partners with supermarkets such as Harris Tetter and Safeway and focuses on grocery delivery. Second, supermarkets sell a variety of goods but the classification should focus on their primary business they are engaged in not the business of things which are ancillary in nature. For example, Harris Teeter has a pharmacy and sells prescription drugs but is still considered a U.S. Supermarket. Third, American Express' definition of U.S. Supermarket explicitly excludes superstores such as Target from counting as U.S. Supermarkets but also specifically includes online grocery delivery services. This is walking contradiction specifically because both Amazon and Walmart have large grocery delivery services which deliver a variety of good but focus on groceries and one of the largest Instacart deliveries a variety of items but actually codes as a restaurant but doesn't give bonus points for U.S. Supermarket or U.S. Restaurant. The lines that were created in the traditional supermarket are blurring and if American Express wants to be successful and have the go to card for groceries it should learn from the Sapphire cards and make it simple to utilize and adjust to people's spending habits. One idea on how to resolve this would be to create codes for the different stores on Shipt to make sure store they don't want to code as 4X time don't do so. Finally, American Express already limits the supermarket benefit to only U.S. Supermarkets and caps it at $25,000 which limits the number of bonus points they would have to give out in a year so I don't understand why they can't make a process, that seems to have a lot of overrides within the system, more transparent. If a store or online delivery service is in the U.S., codes as groceries and the customer is under the $25,000 limit the transaction should get the 4X bonus. In my admittedly short time using Membership Rewards this seems to be one big difference between the approach taken by Ultimate Rewards vs. Membership Rewards. I have on multiple occasions had merchants in the U.S. code as groceries and only get 1X while others code as restaurants but code as 1X. If Amex doesn't provide more confidence that the purchase you make codes correctly customers won't spend as much on the card.