Senior's: Do you remember S&H green stamps?

Question

My Mom collected them at grocer, service stations and other places. I know this sounds weird but, it was a family thing! My sister and I would take turns placing them in the redemption books. Each time we got an entire book filled, with stamps, you would have thought we were celebrating a huge event! lol

Did you or, your parents collect them too?

Awwww, I miss those days!!

Oh! I had forgotten about the "plaid" ones!

Iris! I do remember the dishes in the laundry soap! It was fun digging them out! Thanks for the reminder!

Answer 1

Yes, my Mom collected green stamps, gold stamps and whatever else the grocery store offered. My dad did contract work, with a six-month contract sometimes being a long job. We traveled all over so we were exposed to a lot of variations on green stamps.

My brother and I also helped Mom put the stickers in the book. If she should forget to ask for them in the checkout line, one of us would pipe up to remind her.

She had a catalog we could use to redeem the stamps, but the real treat was when we lived in a town that had a stamp redemption store. You knew how many books you had and you'd wander all over the store trying to decide the best way to spend your credits. It was like Christmas.

Besides collecting green stamps, Mom would buy the soap with the dishes inside. Do you remember those? It was a scavenger hunt to find the box that had just the right sized cup, glass or plate you needed to finish your set.

I remember Grandma buying flour in large cloth sacks that were print fabric. She bought three bags of flour once just to get enough fabric to make me a dress. I wasn't very big -- maybe first grade. The sacks must not have had a lot of fabric per package.

Sometimes I think manufacturers would do well to try this marketing ploy today, but everyone is so "quality" conscious they probably would sniff their noses at something that came in a box of soap.

Answer 2

Oh yes! We had drawers full of S&H green stamps and Blue Chip stamps. Mom and I would sit at the dining room table and stick them in books all day. When we got enough we would go on the big outting to the S&H or Blue Chip store and find something we wanted. It was a fun thing to do with my mom.

Answer 3

I remember my mom receiving S&H Green stamps (at National Food Stores) and Plaid stamps (at A&P Food Stores). I also remember how when we went to the redemption center, the workers there wore rubber cups on the tips of their fingers as they checked every page to make sure you did not leave any blanks.
I don't believe the stores absorbed the costs of giving away these stamps. I've always wondered how the stores passed the costs of these stamps to the customers.

Answer 4

I do indeed remember the S&H stamps. My parents collected them, them took their books of stamps to the redemption store. I loved going there as a child, to look at all the neat things that could be purchased. I also remember Eagle stamps also. After I married & was starting my family, I redeemed many S&H stamp books to purchase a playpen, high chair, etc.

Answer 5

You know it. I remember all of the wonderful "gifts" that the family would get. There was always something "fantastic" that we always never had "enough" green stamps to get. I also remember the "plaid stamps" from the A & P Store and their redemption center. This was all a lot of "fun" for me and the family. I believe I participated in this until I was around 25 years old. Then all of these offer-based redemption centers just up and closed. Thanks for asking. Peace, Love and God Bless.

Answer 6

My Mom also collected the stamps. We ate off a set of plates last night from S&H, I was just told.
She said she remembers the laundry soap - but bought a different brand, so never had any.
Yes, a much simpler time; seems today everything can be counterfeted so easily. Makes life hard with bad guys into everything.

Answer 7

Oh yes.......we had a special drawer in the kitchen for S&H green stamps and the books.

Gosh....that's how my mom and us got those "un-necessary" items we normally couldn't afford. Extra baby doll items......the change in the shower curtain when dad said the old one was just fine.

At that time it was one of the few ways women could splurge and be able to tell their husbands it didn't cost them a cent. Heck we saved the kool-aid envelopes to get the smily face kool-aid pitcher and matching glasses. Something from Campbells for the soup mugs. Something from Pillsbury for the Pillsbury dough boy cookie jar.

Anyone remember some margarine that had the four leaf clover on the box? Cut out the clover and mail it in and you got money back or something. My mom got her "nice" set of dishes with collecting plates when you'd fill up for gas. LOL Got our "Funk and Wagnels" encyclopedia set through grocery store specials. Granted.....no colored pictures like the World Book or Britanica ......but they worked. Think she even got silverware saving and sending in cake box tops.

I really do miss those days. Wasn't that long ago when stores started saying you must have our card to get the sale items for the sale price that they gave you stamps to cash in on different weeks for a loaf of bread for free or a gallon of milk. Double and tripple coupon days etc. Now they don't do a darn thing. Even the cereal box toys are nothing.

Answer 8

Boy do I remember that. We had so many of those it was not funny. I got so tired of licking those stamps that mom got me a sponge that was just damp and let me wet the stamps to put in the book. I loved the day that we would go to trade them in as well.

And this is a believe it or not. Now my mom is a pack rat from heck, she still has several of those books and stamps today. The other day I was helping her do something and I saw a box of those books full of stamps, there were at least a 100 and maybe more of them in that box. I could not believe it. She still has them and will not throw them away, says that one day they might come back and or be worth something, who knows, she might be right.

Answer 9

I sure do remember S & H Green Stamps, and Blue Chip Stamps. There was a gas station near my house that gave double S & H stamps, but the gas cost 40 cents a gallon! That was a lot in '71. I liked Blue Chip Stamps - they had a chipmunk as their logo.

Answer 10

Yep, I live in Texas,and the largest grocery company here used to issue Texas Gold stamps. My mom ,my sister and I would sit at the kitchen table placing them in the books. Then you would take them to the redemption center for household items,clothing. Each item costed so many books. Oh and I remember the dishes in the detergent box too,lol.