Do you remember the S & H Green Stamps? Those “youngsters” under the age of 40 probably haven’t even heard of them. But the seasoned citizens will no doubt have some recollections of the successful retail promotions that involved pasting little green stamps in booklets and then trading them in for merchandise. I think that what brought them to mind recently was the economic downturn that we’ve talked about off and on here. When cash gets sparse in people’s pockets, the bonus stamp handouts start up again at retail establishments. It’s a fluctuating business that rides the tides of economic cycles, usually doing better as most other business are doing worse, and vice versa.
The trading stamp scheme flourishes when retailers are having to compete harder for customers’ dollars and some of them will hand out the stamps based on how much the customer spends, and then the customer can later trade them in for various kinds of goods and merchandise. These plans are found more prevalantly in grocery stores, gas stations and small retail shops. One of my local grocery chains instituted a stamp program a few months ago.
The granddaddy and champion trading stamp firm of them all is the S & H Green Stamps. They were founded in 1896 when a couple of fellows named Thomas Sperry and Shelly Hutchinson concocted the scheme and set up business in Ohio. As the stamp business would grow, they would open regional (and even local) redemption centers where customers could mail in their books of stamps, or even bring them in person, and recieve merchandise like toasters and electric blankets in exchange. S & H made their profit from selling the stamps to the retailers. After rewarding the customers, they had enough money left over to run the company. The retailer benefitted by hopefully encouraging customers to visit their shop instead of a competitor because of the stamp bonus. Everybody came out ahead on that deal.
In the mid- to late-1960′s the stamp craze hit its zenith with redemption centers in almost every town and hundreds of thousands of merchants giving them away. S & H was the elephant in the group, but there were nearly a dozen other stamp firms trying to make a go of it, too. As the stamp fads would rise and fall, S & H would hire and expand, then close and layoff, but always keeping enough business going to keep their home office in Ohio operating. In 1981 the founders’ successors sold the firm to a large holding company and that started a string of ownership transfers over the years, including another phase of family ownership, down to the present. S & H is currently owned by a company called You Technology. But you won’t be seeing their stamps anytime soon. They are now offering the bonuses through online retailers who are now giving their customers “S & H Greenpoints,” a virtual stamp.
Reference:
S & H Greenpoints homepage HERE.
A brief history of S & H at The Straight Dope HERE.
Wikipedia ENTRY.
A good story about them from the York Daily Record HERE from which this video is filed:
On another topic, we’d like to note that the story posted last night, about the Cape Cod house explosion, is posting number 7,000 for Firegeezer. Wow, that’s a lot of stuff. Thanks to all of you for continuing to come back and see what comes next. I just hope you are having as much fun reading our site as we are having putting it all together for you.
Now let’s get this equipment checked out. I have to get the coffee started. Lunch and dinner are already figured out…..how do you want your turkey?
