lwildernorva

Be aware that when you search for local businesses through the Facebook link that Amex may be defining "local" very narrowly. I entered various zip codes for my area, and the merchants listed changed. I don't know what radius Amex is using when you put in a zip code, but since the merchant list changed for me totally when I entered a zip code in a neighboring city, I bet it's no more than about three to five miles. So, if you're interested in trying to find whether a merchant in your area is participating, but you don't see them listed when you use your home zip code, I'd check the business's zip code and enter that instead.

vxmike

Used six cards so far. Already have four credits. I'm assuming some of the merchants are slower to process.

lkar

We decided to use all our credits at one local retailer, which we like and is particularly susceptible to big box domination. We explained what we intended to do before picking stuff out and they were glad, but when it came time to check out, they were annoyed at doing multiple swipes explaining they had to pay transaction fees. We sort of said that we assumed it was a win win and we could instead make a smaller purchase and use our other credits elsewhere. They didn't want that either. The transaction though was a bit unpleasant until about 3/4 of the way through when I think a light bulb went off that it was all good and as other people came into the store with their Amex cards. By the end the proprieters seemed happy, but it was mildly tense for a bit.

blase

I went to our antique place in town (place where I've always been able to find awesome furniture, like a coffee table for $30!!) to look for a side table for an empty space in our living room. Found the perfect one that was $55. It was 10% off and then plus tax came to about $53. Then while she was writing up the ticket my husband spotted some cute knick knacks/wall signs that were Christmas themed and those came to $26 so I asked her to write up a separate ticket for those. No problems with her splitting up the first ticket onto 2 cards and then using a different card for the 3rd $26 transaction (although I felt sheepish asking!) I think they were happy to have the business!! So got a beautiful side table and some christmas decorations for $4 all-in!!!

Came home and already have "Congratualtions" emails. WTG Amex!!!

DavidAL

I bought a local grocery store gift card to use later, processed my double digit Am Ex's at $25 a pop, and got hundreds of dollars in free groceries (which we would have bought anyways). I already have all my confirmation emails, except 1, so I'm assuming that I screwed something up and didn't register that 1 card. I would've thought if I got all the other emails within minutes, I would've got that one too, so I bet I just plum forgot to register 1 card.

Great promotion and we didn't spend anymore than we would've anyways (because we already buy groceries from there!).

abcx

I thought online merchants were excluded?

BOShappyflyer

Great promotion. Registered my three cards and spent it all at three small businesses. Some items from a shoe store, some misc items from a toy store, and a lot of brownies and mini cakes from a local bakery. The congratulations confirmation emails came within minutes after my spend.

That was fast, and fun! I was looking forward to it this morning. I didn't participate last year so i thought it was really cool and the process was seamless. It brought me to check out a few stores i wouldn't have otherwise visited. My mom bought a children's book she's going to give away to a friend's child, a knitting kit, and a couple of pair of socks (in hindsight, it didn't seem like a lot of "stuff"' but that's over $50 for her already).

scoobaboy

just returned from buying six 25$ gift certificates with six different cards from our favorite local Italian restaurant ( they were not on any list, facebook or otherwise). by the time I got home had six emails saying we had completed requirement and to look for a credit to our cards.

lwildernorva

Just found out my favorite Italian restaurant, which I generally visit on Saturday nights, is a participating merchant in this promotion. And I have one more registered card that I haven't used yet.

No reason to break my routine this Saturday night. . .

longleaf

Used my 4 Amex credits at a toy store for stocking stuffers for the nieces and nephews for the upcoming Christmas.

ma91pmh

Just spent $475 at our nice local wine store across our 19 registered cards. Already got email confirms on 17 of them, not too sure what happened with the other two, but if in the end it ended up costing $50 because I forgot to register a couple that is fine too (I was thinking it might not send emails on out of network cards but 3 of the 19 were out of network so does not explain why only got 17/19 emails)

The store had a notice out front advertising Small Business Saturday, and I explained to the proprietor before setting off what we wanted to do and he was absolutely fine with it. Basically in the space of 15 minutes he effectively had 19 customers walk in and buy $25 worth of wine each. That is a damn fine 15 minutes for both of us. That takes care of all the Christmas drinks now

Thank you Amex ^^^

Ritz

Credits? or confirmation emails? Credits do not show up in the "pending" section on the Amex site, so i'm curious as to where your credits actually appeared. It usually takes at least an overnight system update to have the credits appear in the usually "Recent Activity" section.

txrandom

A three lb lamb shank and batch of rosemary came out to $25.30. Thanks AMEX!

longleaf

Actually, i just received a congratulations email that i met the spending requirements to receive the small biz credit.

tjbrooks

I didn't read that, but this place is a retail store that takes online orders, so it could be going through their B&M processor?