S&H Green Stamps

[W. Gray]

Anyone remember Sperry and Hutchinson's S&H green stamps (or, Plaid Stamps, Blue Stamps, Pioneer Stamps, Top Value Stamps, etc. from other stamp companies). Seems like someone mentioned them several months ago.

People could get so many stamps (one per each ten cents purchased?) when buying groceries or gasoline. They then pasted the stamps in a redemption book and after accumulating several books could buy stuff from a redemption catalog or from a redemption center if you were in a large city. Toasters and such were popular items but I recall seeing a speed boat in one catalog. And one web site says life insurance policies could be purchased from S&H with the stamps.

In the 1960s I thought S&H Green Stamps were something new but they had been around since 1896. By the 1960s, S&H was printing more than three times as many stamps as the post office.

I could not find how many stores offered S&H green stamps at its highest point but the company was still in the stamp business as late as 1999 when 100 stores were still offering them. Since then stamp offerings have ceased.

Today, S&H green stamps can still be cashed in at the rate of $1.20 for every 1200 stamps you might have.

The company now operates on the internet offering green points through some retailers.

[frawin]

I remember the S&H Green Stamps.  Several places in Bartlesville gave them when we lived here in the 1970's.  I remember that one Christmas, they had several things that we bough for our 2-year old in the way of toys.  There was a store here and we could go and buy the product and pay with the stamps!   

I seem to remember there were some gold stamps of some kind that some stores gave too.

Myrna

[W. Gray]

Those were probably Gold Bond stamps.

Top Value might have also been gold.

Texas had something that might have been called Texas Gold stamps.

[Marcia Moore]

     I remember the S & H Green Stamps.  When I was young we lived in Oklahoma, about eight miles or so southeast of Elgin, KS.  Bartlesville wasn't very far away, so my parents did a lot of shopping there.  After saving up a large amount of stamps, one would go to the S & H Redemption Center in Bartlesville and redeem their stamps for the item(s) they wanted.  I don't ever remember them having S & H Green Stamps in Kansas.

[sixdogsmom]

The Kansas legislature stopped shopping bonuses in the 1950s if I remember rightly. At the time, most of the grocery chains had a gift selection for cash register receipts, and some places had green stamps.

[Ms Bear]

Oh, did that bring back memories.  I used to keep the stamp catalogs in the car for the kids to entertain themselves with.  They would even look at them together and not fight over them.

Our homes were furnished with so many things from the stamps and if you didn't know what to give a new bride a few books of stamps was always a welcome gift.  Most of the items that they had for redemption were very good quality and a large variety.

Some of the stores even had double stamp days or advertised items with double stamps. 

[twirldoggy]

Wow do I ever remember the green stamps.  There were always some bulging booklets being saved for some item.  We really enjoyed sticking the stamps in the booklets.

[larryJ]

I, too, remember the green stamps growing up.  There was a big redemption center in town even though it was a small town.
The idea of giving green stamps as well as others was, of course, to draw in customers.  Double stamp days, triple stamp days, etc. actually did influence where and what day we would shop.  I remember the blue stamps too.  I seem to recall my mother preferred green stamps because they had a better selection of merchandise.

Larryj