S&H Green Stamps
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
S&H Green Stamps (also called Green Shield Stamps) were a form of trading stamps popular in the United States between the 1930s and early 1980s. They were a rewards program operated by the Sperry and Hutchinson company (S&H), founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelly Hutchinson. During the 1960s, the rewards catalog printed by the company was the largest publication in the United States and the company issued three times as many stamps as the U.S. Postal Service.[citation needed] Customers would receive stamps at the checkout counter of supermarkets, department stores, and gas stations among other retailers, which could be redeemed for products in the catalog.
Sperry & Hutchinson began offering stamps to U.S. retailers in 1896. The retail organizations bought the stamps from S&H and gave them as bonuses with every purchase. The stamps were given at filling stations, shops and supermarkets. Shoppers were given stamps based on the dollar amount of their purchase. Collect enough of them and face licking them and sticking them into collectors books (a pastime often given to amuse children), and the shopper could claim valuable prizes from the local Green Shield shop or catalogue.
Currently the company operates as S&H Solutions and offers S&H greenpoints, a digital version of Green Stamps, which can be earned online and in participating grocery locations.
On December 7, 2006, it was announced that S&H Solutions was purchased by San Francisco based Pay By Touch. The purchase price was in excess of $100 million in cash and stock.
[edit] Green Shield Stamp "syndrome"
Green Shield Stamps were successful as a business, not because they encouraged people to buy goods in proportion to the sales value - they made money because so many receivers of Green Shield Stamps never cashed them in. Sticking the stamps in books was time consuming. This became known as Green Shield Stamp syndrome, which is now a deliberate and intentional problem common with rebates.
