Before there was Seth Green, Lorne Greene, Soylent Green, and Ralph Nader's Green Party, there were S&H Green Stamps, named for the Sperry and Hutchinson company, which was founded in 1896. According to Wiki, the S&H rewards catalog was "the largest publication in the United States" during the 1960s. Folks would pick up stamps at grocery store checkouts, gas stations, etc. and redeem their books of stamps for products featured in the catalog.
A bio that I read a few years back of Jackie Kennedy Onassis said Jackie was a Green Stamp fiend during her days in the White House. When she found out what the stamps were for, she made sure that all White House employees asked for stamps with their purchases of food and other goods for the First Family. Apparently she loved looking through the catalog and, oh you know....gettin' free stuff.
My family never saved Green Stamps so I guess it makes sense that I am also someone who never seems to fill out rebate forms. As Wikipedia notes, this is called "Green Shield Stamp Syndrome." One of the reasons that the stamps -- and, later, rebate offers -- make sense for companies is because so many people never bother to cash them in.
i also remember merchants' green stamps and plaid stamps, both of which we saved. there were also blue stamps but for some reason we didn't save those. plaid was very kind to users. instead of having to paste 50 stamps on a page, if your check-out order was big enough, you would get one large stamp that was worth 50. they also had denominations of five and ten.
Posted by: lwt | November 13, 2007 at 05:05 AM
I remember green and plaid stamps and sitting around the dining room table putting them into books -- my mom would have a wet sponge on a plate and we would always have a hard time getting the amount of water right...sometimes the stamps were soaking wet and wouldn't stick. I still have the punch bowl she got from green stamps and I think of those days every time I use it (now more for salads...I don't think I ever served punch). A few years ago Foodtown was in my town and had points amd a catalog just like the old green stamps. I saved up for quite a while to get a little table painted with golf stuff (for my husband). I've turned into my mother!!!
Posted by: Kathy | November 13, 2007 at 05:35 AM
Plaid stamps from the A & P was the thing in our house. My mother got all sorts of big ticket stuff - a tea cart for the living room, a punch bowl (too) which has probably been used like five times since the 1960's but is now in MY basement, and a lot of little things - lamps mostly. I saved stamps, too, and I remember being very proud of saving the 200 or so I needed for a manicure set in a little leather case by picking up and finding discarded stamps in the store.
Going to the showroom was a big deal!
Posted by: Evelyn | November 13, 2007 at 07:57 AM
I do believe in one of the boxes in my closet that has some of the strange things I have kept for some 40 or 50 yrs, you will find some books of green stamps. I don't know where they came from. I guess it's too late to cash them in, huh? :)
Posted by: Linda | November 13, 2007 at 10:45 AM
I also remember green stamps. They were popular some 40 + years ago when I was first married. I saved up enough to get a set of Milk Glass Lamps---a treasure at the time. I also remember going to the movies and saving up enough points to get a set of dishes. Years ago there was always a gimmick, not so much today. There was a time when the bank gave out presents just for opening an account with them. How many toasters can you use? I guess the freebee days are gone.
Posted by: Ruth Ann | November 13, 2007 at 12:22 PM
Linda: I think the S&H Green Stamps are still around in other parts of the country.
Posted by: Evelyn | November 13, 2007 at 12:23 PM
ruth ann-
i just got a $25 gift card from my bank. a friend opened up an account there and said i recommended it to her. we both got the gift cards.
Posted by: lwt | November 13, 2007 at 01:28 PM
Evelyn....no kidding! I could use a milk glass lamp...lol
Posted by: Linda | November 13, 2007 at 01:56 PM
Foodtown (at least in Monmouth County) still gives out Green Stamps. I don't know where you'd get a catalogue or how you'd redeem them.
Posted by: WL | November 13, 2007 at 04:23 PM
Here you go:
http://www.greenpoints.com/account/act_default.asp
Posted by: Evelyn | November 13, 2007 at 06:37 PM
I bought 2 lamps and a cat house with my S&H Green Stamps. Packards gave out stamps. That and the sawdust in the meat department was incentive enough to shop there!
Posted by: jngls | November 13, 2007 at 08:19 PM
I miss that store. Between the sawdust and the oddities on the shelves, it was always like taking a time capsule back to my babyhood. (I remember when the groceries all had sawdust on the floor in produce and near the meat counter.)
The Target that replaced it will never make me as happy as wandering around Packard's on my lunch hour used to do.
Posted by: Evelyn | November 13, 2007 at 11:36 PM
You bought a CAT HOUSE with green stamps?
(there's a lot of comedic material THERE, Bill).
Posted by: Evelyn | November 13, 2007 at 11:38 PM
i got my first guitar with plaid stamps and i remember some sort of collection of american heritage books also from the a&p store
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i found four green stamps that look just like the one's you have in that picture and i would like to know if they have any value price at this time
Posted by: irvin moreno | May 03, 2009 at 06:43 PM
i got some sperry and hutchinson stamps anyone know the value 1896
Posted by: lazaro r | June 12, 2009 at 09:39 AM
try putting them up for auction on ebay and see what is offered? write to the kovells [they have a weekly column on antiques]?
Posted by: lwt | June 13, 2009 at 05:43 AM
so how much you think there worth now a days
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Posted by: Moipiews | February 13, 2012 at 04:01 AM
I am looking for a punch bowl that came from green stamps late 60's early 70's , belonged to my mom, has been lost.
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My mom had one of those beautiful punchbowls you get with S&H green stamps, and now I have it. Will leave it to my daughter. Broke the cups and ladle during a move but hope to find replacements.
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