How cool was this: After you paid for groceries or gasoline you didn't just get change, you received stamps that could be redeemed for things you wanted!

This is not a tall tale told by parents or grandparents -- like walking two miles to school in waist-deep snow (up hill, both ways) -- it's exactly how S&H Green Stamps worked.

Thomas Sperry of Cranford and Shelley Byron Hutchinson of Ypsilanti, Mich., founded the Sperry and Hutchison Co. in 1896. They made their money by selling the stamps and redemption books to retailers, then accepting the stamps in exchange for products from S&H catalogs at their redemption centers, which numbered 600 nationwide by the mid-1960s.

photos by Donna Gialanella 

Kelly Kazek, writing on al.com, points out that "by the 1960s, collecting stamps was so popular that S&H claimed it issued three times more stamps than the U.S. Postal Service and its reward catalog was the largest publication in the country." Want to talk market penetration? It is estimated that 80 percent of American households collected Green Stamps during their heyday.

 

The range of products that Green Stamps could be redeemed for was broad. By the 1960s, the S&H "Ideabook" catalog contained 178 pages of items from dishtowels and ash trays to fishing poles, bicycles, furniture, appliances and a complete set of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Economists say the recession of the 1970s impacted heavily on S&H Green Stamps; consumers weren't buying as much, and retailers had to cut back on incentive programs. The stamps lasted into the late 1990s, but didn't have the "sticking" power they once held.

Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find Greg Hatala on Facebook.

 

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