Green Stamps/Gold Bond Stamps buys a Maytag washer?

[frigilux]

I know this is dating me, but does anyone remember the days when you'd get Green Stamps or Gold Bond stamps at grocery stores and other businesses? (1960's) I remember that it was my job to lick them and stick them in the stamp books for my Mom.

We'd then go to a local redemption center and 'purchase' items from a catalog, using the stamp books as currency. I remember getting an electric knife, a fondue set, an electric dinner roll warmer---things like that.

I seem to remember that you could actually buy a lower-end Maytag washer for several hundred books of stamps. I think you could get some other big-ticket items, too, but the washer really stands out in my memory.

Is there even such a thing as Green Stamps any more? Did this venture go the way of the dinosaur? Am I hallucinating all of this or could a person really get a washer with Green Stamps?

 

[JerseyMike]

Here in New Jersey, we had Triple S Blue Stamps (Grand Union), S&H Green Stamps (Kings and possibly the Acme), and Plaid Stamps (A&P). All of the stores that I mentioned were (Grand Union) or are (A&P, Kings, Acme) supermarket chains, although I seem to recall that Green Stamps were also given out by some gas stations.) We had an A&P in town so Plaid Stamps are the ones that I'm most familiar with and, yes, if you saved up enough stamps, you could redeem your Plaid Stamps books for a washer (or a dryer or a fridge, or a stove or a freezer or a dishwasher). (You needed a lot of books to get a major appliance.) I also seem to recall that the catalogue (and the redemption centers, which were located in downtown shopping districts and had some of the catalogue offerings on display) featured low-end washers, etc.

What's left of the Foodtown supermarket chain offers S&H Greenpoints (which has the same logo as the old S&H Greenstamps). I'm not sure what's involoved (I think that it has something to do with Foodtown's "club card"), because all of the Foodtowns in my area became Shop and Stop. The website for S&H Greenpoints (www.greenpoints.com) seems to be down at the moment. The link below will take you to Foodtown's website is below.

Mike

http://www.shopfoodtown.com/snhpage.shtml

 

[Cybrvanr]

The local grocery store, Ukrops, sometimes has offers like this going on. Back when I purchased my home, they were giving away cookware for green stamps. One would collect a certain amount of green stamps by spending a certain amount of money on groceries. I ended up getting a complete cookware set for my new home like this. They also did this for place settings too.

 

[DADoES]

I do recall a Maytag pair in the stamp catalog.

 

[jamman_98]

Stamps and Stuff

I remember well Gold Bond Stamps and S & H Green Stamps. My mom collected them all the time. I remember when you had to get a slew of them to get a washer and dryer too. Maytags I think. We have Greenbax stamps here in SC at the Piggly Wiggly. No stamps of course just a number on your receipt. You can get a Whirlpool set for about 600 books! It takes forever to get enought stamps to get anything worth while though.

 

[petek]

I remember the S&H Greenstamps where we lived you got from the local IGA I think, my mom didn't shop there often as we usually went to the A&P but I don't remember now if they had stamps or not, that was late 50's early 60's. We got a set of encyclopedias from one of them. Now of course it's the Air Miles card everywhere pretty much

 

[spiralactivator]

Trading stamps started falling out of favor in the '60s, when several grocery stores dropped them to combat rising food prices. Then in the '70s gas stations dropped all customer incentives in the face of the oil crisis.

I understand that trading stamps are still available in some areas, but on a much smaller and more localized level. S&H stopped making stamps in favor of the "Greenpoints" online system (which is not a success, because it's too much hassel for retailers and shoppers to bother with).

 

[kenmore1978]

trading stamps

Originally here in the Los Angeles area S&H Greenstamps were the most common, then Blue Chip Stamps came in and sorta of wiped them out. I spent many an evening pasting them into the books for my Grandmother.

 

[michaelman2]

I can still remember the taste of that paste on the back of the stamp..my grandmother used to say "use a damp sponge"...nooo..had to have that nutritious glue! I would work all Summer on gluing those stamps in the books, I can not remember redeeming them for anything, it was just the fun of the project.

 

[nurdlinger]

In Detroit...

...in the fifties there were other brands of stamps than those mentioned so far. Gold Bell Gift Stamps, Merchant's Green Stamps, and the ones given out by the Speedway 79 gas stations. We collected the ones given by the A&P, but I can't remember which they were. Maybe Gold Bell. I remember one-by-one all announcing the cutoff date by which all stamp books had to be redeemed.

 

[whirlcool]

I remember you could get a color television, Magnavox I believe for about 550 books of S&H Greenstamps. I think the books had a value of about $1.00 per book or so. And it took a LOT to fill a book! What was it.. each stamp was $.10?
There were also redemption centers in major department stores, such as the Wiebolts store at Lake & Harlem in Oak Park, IL.

 

[parunner58]

From what I have heard here from the grapvine, our CEO when he retired a few years ago joined S&H greenstamps and helped put them into the internet world. I find it hard to believe because he was not that in computers and technolgy when he was here.

 

[tomturbomatic]

In Georgia, we had S&H, Gold Bond and Top Value Stamps. We had redemption stores for all of them close by us. In the Belvedere Plaza shopping center we had a Top Value redemption store will all of the available Frigidaire appliances on display. I still have the use & care manual for the washer, 1962, maybe. I remember wearing my winter car coat which helped me liberate the booklet. Some of mom's Revere Ware came from the stamp stores. We got the 6 quart Dutch Oven at the S&H store in Knoxville, TN when we went there with Dad on one of his trips. I think that the redemption center was near the Holiday Inn or a cafeteria we frequented on previous trips, so as part of the trip plan, we took enough books to get the pan. Dad traveled 7 states and only bought gas where they offered stamps, so we had a lot. I hated pasting them in the books. We would use a wet sponge in a saucer to moisten the glue. I think I wound up with one of the black rocking chairs we got with stamps and the sad truth is you're either on your rocker or you're off your rocker.

 

[Washinsheen]

My mom bought groceries at Furr's Supermarket on Wednesdays because it was double stamp day.....Gold Bond. Then when we'd visit Dad's parents in Roswell, NM, we'd buy gas at a station that gave out S&H Green Stamps.

Mom would reserve most of her stamps for buying bridal shower gifts for people a church....usually a blanket. But we also got our bedspreads, kitchen and bedroom curtains with stamps. I recall also getting the following items, there: deviled egg dish w/hen salt & pepper shakers, jewelry box, "pearls," a wooden key holder in the shape of a skeleton key, a manicure set in a red alligator zip case, a small pitchure & basin set, a foot stool, and a wonderful Siamese cats TV lamp for Grandma and great-aunt Ruth (see pic, below!)