Licking the Stamps

At dinner this evening my spouse and I were reminiscing about S&H Green Stamps. I remember how they would shoot out of a machine in the grocery store check out line, like coins from a slot machine; and I remember how annoyed Mom would be if you picked up groceries on the way home but forgot to get the green stamps. My spouse remembers that his grandma would save them up all year long until he and his brothers came to visit in the summer, so that they could lick the strips and arrange them in the half-sized paper books filled with columns for the different stamp amounts. (Their tongues, though!)

These trading stamps were then exchanged for merchandise in a little store front: mostly kitchen and household items running the gamut from counter top appliances to wet vacs and luggage. This was long before the Internet or Amazon, and well before Bed Bath & Beyond or big box stores like Walmart, Target, and Costco. S&H were not the only brand of trading stamps, but they were a pioneering precursor to all of the incentive and loyalty programs we have now in the form of member cards to swipe or telephone numbers to verify. Trading stamps added a little spice to a homemaker’s life in the 1960s and 70s.

For me these days its all about the gas points. I gave up on clipping and organizing coupons when I returned to work full time, except for Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons. Not the 20% off one item kind, but the spend $15 get $5 off kind. (Did you know some BB&Bs have toiletries?!) I was raised by parents who lived through the Great Depression as children, so the thrill of saving a little here and there is stuck tight to my DNA.