Next Time You Shop Small, Thank American Express

Shoppers in Annie's Blue Ribbon General Store in Brooklyn, Nov. 3, 2020 [American Express/AP]

By Samantha Grasso

Across my Instagram feed, friends who run their own businesses and retail stores in Austin, Texas, are reminding people to “shop small” this holiday season.

In other words, skip that Amazon order and support your local small businesses – they have likely been affected by the pandemic, and Congress has yet to pass a bill providing relief. There’s even a special day, sandwiched between the corporate celebrations of Black Friday and Cyber Monday: “Small Business Saturday.”

So you may be surprised to know that the entire “shop small” movement was started by a giant corporation.

In 2010, credit card company American Express launched the first ever “Small Business Saturday.” It was an effort, according to the company’s website, to support community businesses as the country exited another financial crisis — the Great Recession. As part of their promotional efforts, the company purchased and gave $100 in Facebook advertising credits to 10,000 small business owners to help them boost their online presence in anticipation of the shopping event.

The following year, the Senate passed a resolution recognizing Nov. 26, 2011, as “Small Business Saturday” and supporting efforts to “encourage consumers to shop locally, and … increase awareness of the value of locally owned small businesses and their impact on the U.S. economy.”

Since then, American Express has celebrated the day with various promotions intended to help assist small businesses. But the romanticism of the mighty credit card company helping weak and vulnerable shop owners is clouded by the fact that American Express gets to capitalize on all these gains. The company owns trademarks for the phrases “Small Business Saturday” and “Shop Small,” and the small business map that it promotes for local recommendations only features stores that accept American Express cards.

In 2013, left-leaning small-business trade association Main Street Alliance called out the corporation for its “hypocrisy.” The alliance criticized American Express for “sheltering $8.5 billion in profits abroad,” according to the New York Times – hardly an example of supporting the local economy. They also took issue with the company’s exorbitant “swipe fees” on card transactions — the highest of all card companies at the time — and restrictive agreements that prevented shop owners from asking customers for other forms of payment.

In fact, the month before American Express launched the “Small Business Saturday” initiative, the Justice Department and 17 states sued the company, as well as MasterCard and Visa, over these merchant rules. While the latter two companies settled, American Express fought the suit, which ended in 2018 when the Supreme Court ruled in the company’s favor.

Nonetheless, “shopping small” has become a popular mantra. This past month, Main Street Alliance encouraged its social media followers to “#ShopYourValues” and shop at Black-owned businesses on Black Friday. It’s also promoting “#ShopSmallFundBig,” calling on supporters to contact their senators and urge them to pass another round of pandemic relief, that also addresses the racial disparities within small business relief.

"With COVID spikes across the country and cold weather coming on, the holiday gift season may be the only thing that gets some industries through until the spring," Sarah Crozier, spokesperson for Main Street Alliance, told the Evansville Courier & Press last month. But it’s important to recognize that, in the background, large global corporations like Amex are using the celebration of these businesses to rake in profits.

“Every Saturday should be Small Business Saturday,” Barb Campbell, a Japanese craft store owner in Oregon, told the Times back in 2013. “[But] every other day of the year, American Express just puts the squeeze on Main Street merchants.”

And now, learn more about how Black Friday really hurts workers:

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