A Different Shade of Green

By Stefanie Levine Cohen

These days, “green” typically refers to the environment, but for many of us it also evokes fond memories of an earlier, simpler time. A time when toasters weren’t ovens and plates weren’t recyclable. When catalogues were printed on paper, not posted on websites and when reading them was an evening’s entertainment. When mothers and grandmothers, sisters and daughters sat across a kitchen table “shopping” together for household items. When the phrase “family dinner” was redundant. And when stamps weren’t self-adhesive.

Do you remember that gummy, slightly sweet taste of the back of S&H Green Stamps? Can you still feel the excitement rising up within you when you stuck the last stamp into the last book needed to earn that special toy, or the bridge table and chairs your mother wanted? We asked our readers these questions, and so many of them told us they found themselves smiling broadly as they remembered the pasting of Green Stamps into collectors’ books. Working patiently toward the day that they’d saved enough books, they knew the next step was that long anticipated trip to the Redemption Center to choose their reward.

“I have memories of my mother, sister and me at our kitchen table, licking stamps and putting them in little books as soon as we were done licking, we were out the door and on our bikes!” Carol Servino, Girlfriendz Writer, Henderson, NV

“Lying on the living room floor looking through the catalogue, hoping maybe I would get at least part of a book to put toward my own special prize.” Holly Sanborn, Cherry Hill, NJ

“Sitting in front of the TV with tons of those stamp books all around me, licking stamps to place them in the books so my mother could schlep to the store to redeem them.” Barbara Fox, Girlfriendz Writer, Mt. Laurel, NJ

S&H Green Stamps was launched in 1896 and reached its peak in the mid-1960’s. Operated by the Sperry and Hutchinson Company, the rewards program sold stamps to supermarkets, department stores and gas stations, and they would, in turn, distribute the stamps to their customers as “bonuses” for their purchases. Customers pasted the stamps into collectors’ books, which they could redeem by mail for items in the company catalogue or in person at a local Green Stamps redemption store. For most of our readers, the treasure was less in the prize and more in the process.

“This brings up a well of memories. My parents used the stamps to purchase many items for our house. I remember the ’telephone table’ in our dining room, the dishes As a young bride, I would go through the ceremony of gently sticking the stamps on the pages. There were squares imprinted on the pages and the stamps had different values so you had to be sure you didn’t place them on a page that was completed. You also had to be sure that you didn’t use too much moisture, or the pages might stick together..” Marsha Goodman, Philadelphia, PA

“I remember my aunts and Nana Frances arguing over who was going to give up their stamps to the one that only needed a couple more to finish her book. You would have thought the requestor was asking for a firstborn!” Linda Lane, Girlfriendz Columnist, Cherry Hill, NJ

“My fondest memory of S&H Green Stamps is when, as an eighth grade class, we collected stray stamps from anyone who would donate them. Our goal was to redeem them for toys for an orphanage our class was sponsoring for the holiday season. It was memorable because we laundered, ironed and pasted all the stray stamps we received you know, the single stamps with the fuzzies from the bottom of someone’s handbag and the ones with gum stuck to them.” Gretchen Kotkin, Cherry Hill, NJ

S&H may have been the biggest trading stamp company, but they weren’t the first. In 1891, Milwaukee’s Schuster and Company department store introduced the Blue Trading Stamp System. Customers received one stamp for each ten cents spent, pasted them into booklets and redeemed them for merchandise at the store. Five years later, Thomas A. Sperry and his financial backer Shelly B. Hutchinson expanded the concept into an independent stamp company that would not just provide stamps to the merchants, but also take on the redemption. S&H Green Trading Stamps was born, and a year later its first redemption center opened in Bridgeport, Connecticut. By the middle of the 20th century, trading stamps had evolved into a billion dollar industry.

“I distinctly remember that we collected those stamps throughout my early years, dumping and sorting them into piles on our dining room table, then filling in books with those little stamps. My siblings and I fought over whose turn it was to lick the stamps and we had to work carefully to place them in the little boxes. My mother, who was both practical and thrifty, redeemed the completed books for useful household items. Once she had enough to trade for a new set of silverware.” Lori Samlin-Miller, Cherry Hill, NJ

“A 25-point stamp would cover a large section of blocks. I can still remember looking through the catalogue and wondering what to “buy.” The stamps gave middle-class people a chance to accumulate items for their homes. The thrill of filling each book was so exciting.” Marsha Goodman

“I loved S&H Green Stamps. I can remember my mom saving them up and then all of us getting in the car my mom, grandmother, aunt, cousin and myself. I have no clue what we ended up buying. It was more about the experience.” Marilyn Kleinberg, Egg Harbor Twp, NJ