Out of my Element

Gonna be down in the Big Apple for the holiday weekend, all I can find on the Amex sites are maps that purport to show the participating shops. But even with my limited knowledge (12-15 days/year) I can tell the maps are wrong.

Is there a printed list of participating merchants anywhere?

Otherwise, I know I've done well at the Grand Central shops and the Bryant Park market in prior years

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

I'm not sure what you mean when you say, "the maps are wrong." Note that this year's promotion includes the following term:

"Qualifying small business locations are those identified on the Shop Small® Map, available at ShopSmall.com. In addition, small business locations that accept American Express through Square also qualify and can be found on the Square Directory at https://squareup.com/directory/?cmpId=amex or from your mobile phone using the Square Wallet app. Small business locations that do not appear on the Shop Small® Map or that do not accept American Express through Square will not qualify for the $25 statement credit offer. Please note that business location information provided on the Shop Small® Map and Square Directory may contain inaccuracies or errors, including as a result of information provided by third parties. Transactions with political campaigns or political action committees are not eligible, regardless of whether they appear on the Shop Small® Map or in the Square Directory." (Emphasis added.)

sbm12

What part is wrong? The bits in my neighborhood look accurate enough.

Analise

Your knowledge must be worse than limited; what is your issue with the cartographer? Show us an example of where you see the map is inaccurate.

What is the difficulty with typing a zip code, moving the map to your desired neighborhood, and then seeing which businesses are represented by large dots in which you click them to see the business name? What is the challenge with just typing the name of the business itself instead of a zip code?

nerd

Rarrr, cranky kitty!

I'll pull up my block. First listing - the map is showing a "Blockheads Mexican Diner" on 2nd Ave and 6th Street.

The closest Blockheads is near 34th street. Doh!

Analise

You've got some kind of cat fetish I see. The map does state that there is a Blockheads at 954 2nd in the zip code of 10022.

Out of my Element

I'm not going to go into the list of places I found that were mislocated, but there were many that I found that were listed twice, and others that were off by two or three blocks or more.

What I'd like is what they offered last year: A text listing of the participating shops. I expect to be covering dozens of blocks of Manhattan on Saturday and I do not intend to keep checking my smart phone to see who is participating and who is not.

1) The "Shop Small map" is not something I can print out, and having to go through a series of steps to find out what stores are participating is a fine example of using technology to make things more confusing, not an example of using technology to simplify life.
2) I don't know what zip code I'm in as I perambulate New York City, so that "feature" doesn't help me


Oh what the hell, here's an example:

Sabon is a shop I've frequented. Per the map, they have locations at:

38 Greene Street
236 W 30th Street

Sabon has no shops at these locations, per their website

Also:

1371 6th Avenue (listed twice)
2052 B'way (listed twice)

And:

Bryant Park, but it is shown as being at 5th and 75th
Etc.

Out of my Element

All I want is to know:

What theaters are participating?

What restaurants are participating?

What shops are participating?

That information shouldn't be hidden. I shouldn't have to type in every zip code and page through 20 pages of 5 (only FIVE?) links to find out what's available in a few block radius of where I am (The Tim McGraw Fan Club is participating? Really?)

themicah

The map is incredibly useless.

I can see at least four businesses on the map within a block of my front door that either don't exist (one went out of business two years ago) or are small catering companies or individuals who don't have stores of any sort at the addresses given (I assume these are folks who have merchant accounts linked to their home addresses or something?).

And I can see several businesses that show up in locations that are nowhere near the addresses listed--in some cases multiple blocks away.

On top of all of it, when you click on a dot on the map, half the time the bubble identifying it opens outside the iframe and when you move the map to try to read the bubble that pops up, it resets the map and gives an entirely different set of businesses.

Out of my Element

So no one has found a more useful compilation of the data?

Guess I'll just have to look for the signs in shop windows. Makes it much harder to plan for this.

Analise

Took advantage of SBS (no, not the bus!) yesterday. The Amex website and map couldn't have been easier. Nice that our lunch was essentially reimbursed!

Landing Gear

I used it last night. I tried the website over and over on my iPhone and was unable to get it to display the store in which I was interested. I called customer service and they confirmed its enrollment.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

After finding a nice gourmet shop in Kew Gardens listed on the shopsmall.com website, I walked over there yesterday morning to buy a seven-layer cake and a sandwich. When I presented my Amex card to pay, I was told, "We don't take American Express; they charge too much." When I replied that the store was listed as a participant in Small Business Saturday, I was told that the store, "never registered" for that.

I ended up paying with Visa. I called Amex customer service later in the day, and the rep quickly offered to post a $25 credit to my Amex account.

Very strange.

Analise

Odd. I received an email at 12:01am today thanking me for using the card yesterday. Here's what it said:

"Thank you for using your enrolled Card ending in ****
and for supporting Small Business Saturday®!

Small businesses are the heartbeat of our communities and supporting
them is a great way to help fuel the local economy."

Out of my Element

First place we went to from what I had jotted down did not exist (no Sabon at Grand Central). Did find it at Bryant Park, haven't seen a credit go through yet.