Retailers which gave out trading stamps had to pay for them (and, I suspect, passed that cost along to consumers), but in the 1960s and early 1970s, in an era with generally low inflation, consumers may not have been as price-sensitive. Grocery stores and gas stations, among other sorts of retailers, gave out trading stamps and other premiums as a way to drive consumer preference and loyalty. Once inflation became a problem in the mid '70s, more consumers started seeking out retailers that offer lower prices, rather than retailers which gave out premiums with a purchase.
The FTC may have played a role, as trading stamps essentially were a scrip (and spawned a black market in stamps), and the FTC sued S&H in 1971 for violating the “unfairness doctrine,” by attempting to restrain black-market trading in stamps.
I also remember stamp books you could get at the bank, then buy a stamp for a quarter and when the book was full, you got a Savings Bond that would mature in 7(?) years.
I got a really nice camera via saving Kool-aid envelopes. It’s amazing I have any teeth left.
Eagle Stamps are extra nice
Bring you cash or mer-chan-dise
My mother loved Eagle Stamps because a) any store that gave them out would also redeem them for just about anything they sold. IIRC you got $2.50 worth of merchandise for a book of stamps, or b) you could also redeem them for $2.25 in cash.
Mom had an entire drawer just for stamps. In addition to Eagle Stamps, we had S&H Green Stamps, Top Value stamps (they were yellow) and Tom-Boy stamps (from a local supermarket chain) and Og only knows what else.
My mother never had to worry about where to shop - she’d take anybody’s stamps.
It says here that Eagle Stamps started in St. Louis, and were owned by the May Company. They also owned the May Company stores in Ohio, so it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s where you got your Eagle Stamps.
I remember them well - I had a little green transistor radio I got in something like 1972 or 3, I used to listen to CBS Radio Mystery Theater hidden under the blankets, using the little earphone and using a flashlight to read with =)
The latest I seem to remember Mom using them would have been in probably 1976 or so.
I had a radio very similar to, if not the same as the linked radio, except mine was red. This was the late 60s when I was about 10.
My best memory of that radio was listening to Philadelphia’s WCAU radio station with famed DJ, Jerry Blavat - The Geator with the Heater, loudly at our community swim club.
When The Big Boss with the Hot Sauce played Sugar Sugar by The Archies, I cranked that radio up full blast. All the poolside kids (and a few parents) gathered around and we all danced. I was the kool kid with the rad radio that day.
Jerry Blavat (“I play music from the heart, not a research chart.”) died on January 20, 2023. Age 82. Another institution bites the dust.
Green stamps and Plaid stamps (from A&P I think). I was the kid in charge of pasting them in the books. And we had a lot of books. But I don’t recall redeeming them, or what we got. Beside the point. It was the pasting that mattered to me. I was in charge.
Of course the concept is still around, with points collected when you swipe a card. My SIL pays a lot more for groceries when she shops at stores that “give” her points in the belief that she makes it back when she cashes in the points. Her husband did the math a few times and calculated (big surprise) that they lose money, both by redeeming points for stuff they otherwise wouldn’t buy and just from the more expensive groceries.
I remember from one of the books written about Star Trek that Lucille Ball, the head of Desilu Studios (where The Original Series was produced) was a Green Stamps nut. In a board meeting, she groused about the Green Stamps given with all the gasoline that was filling up all the studio cars and trucks, and how she wasn’t getting these stamps. I mean, yeah, the gas was bought on her dime…or rather, the studios’…but she was a millionaire even then. She needed Green Stamps like a eagle needs roller skates. Go figure.
My mother collected Green Stamps and then switched over to Gold Bond stamps, which was a rival company. Once all her kids were in school and the youngest neighbor didn’t need her daytime babysitting (note, not called daycare yet) any more she went and got herself a job at the Gold Bond Gift Center, where locals could come in and redeem their gifts. We got a lot of house decor from their overstock/clearance stuff and Dad was relieved that his income wasn’t going toward her penchant for “dust collectors”.
We got S&H Green Stamps and Blue Chip stamps when I was a kid. The booklet from the earlier link brought back memories–I remember helping my mom put the green stamps in, and we’d go to the redemption center every now and then to pick stuff up. I got several toys from there, including a stuffed tiger and cat that I still have in a box somewhere.
The Green Stamps came from the local market. I don’t remember where we got the Blue Chips, and I don’t remember ever going anywhere to redeem them. I don’t think we got nearly as many of those.
Wow, the croquet set must have been Sperry & Hutchinson’s biggest seller. Count me in as another person whose family bought it with green stamps!
I also remember that S&H had a regional office in Hillside, Illinois, right where the Eisenhower expressway meets the Tri-State. Riding by it as a kid I imagined it as a pretty exotic place, full of croquet sets and huge printing presses churning out stamps.
Do I remember S&H stamps? I still have both physical and emotional scars from the haircuts my mother gave me with that S&H stamp hair clipper set. I’ve got serious trauma and school pictures I can’t even think about.
Now I know where the Croquet set us kids had growing up came from. Thanks, Mom. She would have strips of stamps in varying lengths received as “change” at the checkout when grocery shopping, to be placed in books. I think I got drafted once to fill up the book.
Sears had a similar deal, with their “Gold Bond” program. For example instead of the standard green Coleman lanterns and 2 burner camp stoves, distinctive gold painted appliances were redeemed for coupons. These gold colored items are sought after by collectors.
For some reason, Coleman lanterns are a big hit in Asia and Japan, with certain models in good shape getting pretty nice money.
In England we had Green Shield stamps, there were one or two others but that was the big one. Tesco was the big supermarket chain that offered them, some stores and gas stations did as well. Sainsburys would have nothing to do with the concept, it was too vulgar for them. The Co-op had its own version, altho they could eventually be exchanged for money off your grocery bill when you filled the book.
All these stamps eventually got superseded by plastic store loyalty cards, where the points accumulated on the card and there was no need to go through the administrative business of handling and redeeming stamps.