A little cynicism about the "Small Business Saturday" movement.

[Atman]

First of all, I'm all for the idea of spending your money with "small businesses" instead of big boxes. But it struck me, what do big cable news shows have to gain, since none of their advertisers are genuinely "small businesses."

An important point; the government definition of "small business" has nothing to do with the mom & pop stores. Multi-million dollar concerns can easily fit the official definition. So, consider who is promoting this movement -- A very large business.

One could argue that this "small business" push helps soften the term, and further convince Americans that raising taxes hurts "small business," when it's actually unlikey Mom's Cupcake Shoppe would be impacted.

An even simpler explanation, though, but perhaps sharing a bit with the above; the very large business promoting this national campaign issues credit cards that most Mom & Pop's don't accept because of their high fees.

So, I suspect this is much more about Amex using this as its own marketing ploy to get true small businesses to sign up for a merchant account, and take advantage of this giant ad campaign.

In conclusio, if you REALLY want to support a locally owned store, shop there...and pay cash!

[hobbit709]

1. 99% of my purchases are cash I rarely even use my debit card.

[noamnety]

2. There are different types of small businesses, sure.

I'm gonna do the small business thing. I saw in my area dollar castle qualifies but I wouldn't consider it a small business so I won't be spending it there. I also saw a small mideast bakery/fruit market near me qualifies, so I'm going to spend the money there instead.

Given a choice between getting $25 in free produce and them getting a small profit, or me getting nothing in free produce (paying cash) to give them the same exact profit because I'm buying less, I'm gonna let amex give me the extra produce.

Of course it's marketing for amex, I get that. I also don't think that many small businesses are going to sign up for a year long program so people can get $25 off one day a year.

[Travis_0004]

3. American Express is offering 25.00 off a 25.00 purchase at a small business.

I see this as a good thing, I realize Amex has high fees, but if you were planning on spending 25.00, but instead spend 50, then even after fees the small business is doing good.

[SoCalDem]

4. The definition of "small" is the problem

We need new definitions if we ever want to really get a handle on things:

Micro....Mom & Pop owners & kids as employees....Max 6 total
Mini...Mom & Pop owners and a few non-family employees...Max 10 employees
Small.....LOCAL owner/operator.....Max 20 employees
Medium...Not necessarily local owned, but local employees....Max 80

Anything over 80, but under 500= BIG BUSINESS

Mega.....National/International ....over 500 employees

"special " considerations should be reserved for Micro,Mini,Small & Medium...ONLY

Big & Mega can take care of themselves

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. The original sponsor is American Express

[Lex]

6. LOCALLY OWNED small business is how I define it. My locally owned bookshop,

my locally owned craft store, my locally owned gift shop, my locally owned kitchen supply store.

That's how I spend my dollars. Those dollars are more likely to stay in my community.

[flamingdem]

7. This is making me spend in new places, in that sense it works

but be careful, they will only honor those businesses that signed up due to chaos last year over the definition of a small business.

check their list, I'd say